Image of a state marker noting the first Africans in Virginia, located just outside Fort Monroe National Monument/NPS
National parks will offer special programs on Sunday, August 25, to commemorate the first landing of enslaved Africans 400 years ago in English-occupied North America at Virginia’s Point Comfort, now part of Fort Monroe National Monument.
"The National Park Service protects and preserves the sites of some of the most significant events in American history," said Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith. "To commemorate the anniversary of the 1619 landing, we are highlighting the places and stories in the National Park System that recognize the impact and legacy of 400 years of African American history and culture."
While Spanish explorers had previously brought enslaved people to what became the southern and southwestern United States, it was the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America that led to African American bondage in the United States. The 13th Amendment ended slavery in the U.S., but the pursuit of equality and civil rights for all endures.
August 25th will be a day of remembrance, healing, and reconciliation throughout the country. National parks, including Fort Monroe National Monument, will host programs and participate in a nationwide bell ringing at 3 p.m. EDT. Everyone across the country is encouraged to come together in solidarity to ring bells simultaneously for four minutes—one minute for each century—and mark the occasion on social media with #RingToRemember or #400Years.
The 400th anniversary is a year-long commemoration and conversation to recognize and highlight 400 years of African American history and accomplishments. The work of the 400 Years of African American History Commission, established by Congress and the President last year and administered by the National Park Service, extends to July 2020. Civic, historical, educational, artistic, religious, and other organizations are invited to coordinate and participate in activities designed to expand the collective understanding and appreciation of African American contributions to the American experience.
August 25 also marks the 103rd anniversary of the legislation that established the National Park Service. All national parks will offer free admission for the day. The parks and programs of the National Park Service connect Americans and visitors from around the world with the nation’s notable landscapes, history, and outdoor opportunities. Each of the 419 national parks tells an important part of the collective story of America.
In addition to August 25, the remaining entrance fee free days for 2019 are National Public Lands Day on Sept. 28 and Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
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Re "Virginia's Point Comfort, now part of Fort Monroe National Monument":
In fact, the national monument is only part of Point Comfort, all of which is the retired Chesapeake Bay Army post called Fort Monroe. This confusion has been exacerbated by news articles misportraying all of Fort Monroe as having become federally stewarded when the Army left in 2011, even though what actually got created is only a limited, bifurcated national monument on two parts of the retired post's eastern bayfront. Additionally confusing is that both the post and the moated stone citadel within it are called Fort Monroe. For at-a-glance clarification, please see the Save Fort Monroe Network's visual summary:
http://cfmnp.org/images/Please_unify_split_national_monument.jpg
When Tidewater's leading mayors echoed the National Parks Conservation Association, the Civil War Trust, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and others by calling for the bifurcated national monument to be unified, the mayors pointed to that illustration on the Save Fort Monroe Network site. The mayors' statement:
http://www.cfmnp.org/pdfs/MayorsFortMonroeLetterToGovernor.pdf
Fort Monroe is arguably the leading historic landscape for civic memory of the Civil War slavery-escaping self-emancipators who forced the war's transformation into a freedom struggle:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03CivilWar-t.html
Henry Louis Gates has elaborated on that:
http://www.theroot.com/the-black-roots-of-memorial-day-1790875788
With Fort Monroe about to receive 15 minutes of fame this weekend during the 1619 commemoration, it's important also to note that Virginia actually has no intention of promoting or respecting federal stewardship. Last year, without even mentioning the national monument, they proclaimed on a "Reimagine the Future of Fort Monroe" web page for developers a vision "to redevelop this historic property into a vibrant, mixed-use community":
http://web.archive.org/web/20181209194942/http:/reimagine.fortmonroe.org/
That's a Web Archive copy of their brazen proclamation. The authorities password-protected the page after it was publicized in this Washington Post op-ed calling attention to Fort Monroe's overdevelopment peril:
http://fortmonroenationalpark.org/WashPostFortMonroeOpEd.htm
The Save Fort Monroe Network:
http://fortmonroenationalpark.org/