Themes

Introduce and/or Supplement On-site Interpretation

Interpretation is the critical tool for helping people understand, forge a connection with, and care about a landscape’s inherent natural and cultural assets. On-site interpretive markers could include text about the protests, short biographies of the participants, maps, and other material that would contextualize the events and complement guided tours and online information.

Interpretive Marker at Shadyside Park, Atlanta, George. Photo by Bob Semsch, 2024.

For example, Haulover Beach and Crandon Park in Miami at present have no interpretive markers about the “wade-ins” in 1945 and 1959, respectively, that resulted in the desegregation of the area’s beaches. The same applies to Chicago’s Grant Park, which has no interpretive marker about the 1968 protests. The guided tours of Fisk University offered to prospective students and other visitors don’t currently mention to protests of 1925. By contrast, a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker outside Independence Hall commemorates the gay rights demonstrations that took place annually on July 4, from 1965 to 1969.

On-site interpretive markers are elemental and essential tools in providing critical context about past events and cultural lifeways. Without such educational tools these people and stories run the risk of being erased or forgotten from our public landscapes and collective memories.