Reconstruction Era National Historical Park Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Tsongas for managing this bill, and I thank Mr. Gianforte for appearing here on the floor today.

I also thank Chairman Bishop and Ranking Member Grijalva for their support of this legislation in the Natural Resources Committee.

I also thank Congressman Mark Sanford, who is a cosponsor of this bill, but remains in Charleston this evening for obvious reasons. I pray God's blessing upon him, his constituents, mine, and all others who find themselves in the path of this horrific hurricane.

Mr. Speaker, throughout my tenure in this august body, I have worked to preserve and protect our Nation's most treasured historical sites and institutions.

Reconstruction, a period which lasted a little more than 13 years, is a crucial period in American history. Although it ended March 17, 1877, we tend to apply the label ``Reconstruction era'' to the latter four decades of the 19th century. It was during those years that African Americans across the South began their freedom from slavery, gained citizenship, and enjoyed equal protection of the laws and the right to vote under the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

Some of the oldest and best preserved sites from the Reconstruction era are located in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Brick Baptist Church and Penn Center on St. Helena Island were the site of the original Penn School, founded in 1862 by Quaker missionaries to educate newly freed slaves, the first such school established in the South.

Camp Saxton in Port Royal was a Union Army camp where, on January 1, 1863, Union General Rufus Saxton read President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation to thousands of slaves who had gathered to celebrate their new freedom. The camp was also the site where the First South Carolina Volunteers were assembled, the first official Black regiment of the United States Army.

With overwhelming support from their communities and local elected leadership, these sites and a visitors center in downtown Beaufort were designated Reconstruction Era National Monument by President Obama in January of 2017.

The bill under consideration today will do three things:

First, redesignate the national monument as the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park;

Second, provide for possible boundary expansions within the Beaufort National Historic Landmark District and on St. Helena Island; and

Third, establish the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network.

As a national park is the highest level of protection and prestige our government can bestow, I believe passing this legislation will send a powerful message regarding the significance of these Reconstruction sites.

Having served previously as the sponsor of the legislation redesignating the Congaree Swamp National Monument as the Congaree National Park, I can attest that the rebranding of the park resulted in an increase in annual visitors of almost 20 percent, a significant economic impact to rural South Carolina.

Congress has, in recent years, redesignated both the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument as national historical parks, two sites with similar historical significance but focus on much different aspects of American history.

Of course, the sites currently included in the national monument are not the only significant Reconstruction sites worthy of preservation. This legislation would allow for expansion of the boundary near the existing monument. Several very significant Reconstruction sites in the area were considered for inclusion. This bill would allow for expansion with appropriate agreement between all owners and stakeholders.

However, it is not feasible to incorporate all historic sites from Reconstruction into one national park. The Reconstruction Era National Historic Network would be a program operated by the National Park Service, but sites in the network will be managed by their current owners, whether Federal, State, local, or private.

This concept has been utilized in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and the recently enacted African American Civil Rights Network.

When the national monument was under construction, I heard from many communities with sites they thought were worthy of inclusion. With the network in place, communities can make their case for Federal recognition and assistance for their significant Reconstruction era sites without the National Park Service having to take on the obligation of owning or managing the sites.

Sites like Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island, which was a self- governing African-American community established during the Civil War, are deserving of Federal recognition. Mitchelville is perfect for the network concept, where the local municipal leadership is moving forward to manage the site on their own, but would welcome the increased recognition and visibility that inclusion in the network would provide.

I often invoke the adage that if we fail to learn the lessons of our history, we are bound to repeat it. Sadly, many of the gains made by African Americans during the Reconstruction era were lost in the Jim Crow era that followed. Reconstruction is a story of the triumph of freedom, but it is also a lesson that freedoms are not permanent and can be fleeting, if not protected.

Passage of this legislation, helping our Nation preserve, protect, document, and promote the history of Reconstruction, is critical to avoiding past mistakes and guiding our pursuit of a more perfect Union.

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