The new interpretive sign outside the former restrooms for African American visitors/NPS

A window into America's segregated past has opened at Fredericksburg and Spotslvania National Military Park in Virginia, where a former garage that in the 1930s and 1940s housed segregated restrooms for African American visitors is the focal point of a wayside exhibit.

One of those restrooms is still in use and retains original tile and fixtures. The larger building is today the park’s gift shop and bookstore. 

The new exhibit was a collaborative effort between the National Park Service and the University of Mary Washington to highlight surviving historic resources—buildings and landscape features—related to the local and national story of racial segregation at national parks. Dr. Erin Devlin of the University of Mary Washington is currently working with the National Park Service to develop a historic resource study that will examine the practice of racial segregation in Virginia’s national parks during the first half of the 20th century.

The new wayside exhibit had its genesis in Dr. Devlin’s Introduction to Public History course at UMW, where students worked on a number of projects dealing with segregation and facilities at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP. These projects included the creation of a digitized archive of photos related to the segregated camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps that worked on the local battlefield park, curricular materials and lesson plans related to CCC camps, and this wayside highlighting the African-American restroom facilities at the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center. 

The new exhibit is a permanent addition to the park’s interpretive landscape. The grounds at the Sunken Road and around the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center are open sunrise to sunset.