President Joe Biden recently signed the Blackwell School National Historic Site Act, designating the Blackwell School site in Marfa, Texas the newest part of the National Park System.
According to a press release, this designation will permanently protect the site as an important part of history that will serve to tell the story of segregation in Texas school districts that established separate elementary schools for Mexican American children.
“As a nation, we must face the wrongs of our past in order to build a more just and equitable future. The ugliness of the segregation era had many impacts that we have failed as a nation to adequately acknowledge,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said, according to the press release. “This new designation will help us tell a truer American story, and ensure this important and painful chapter in our nation’s history is preserved and remembered for the generations to come.”
Visitors to the site can view the original 1909 adobe schoolhouse and a smaller 1927 classroom building known as the Band Hall. The buildings will display photographs, memorabilia and interpretive panels that feature quotes and stories from students and teachers which will constitute an important record of life in a segregated school in the context of the history of Texas and America.
“It is our solemn responsibility as caretakers of America’s national treasures to tell the whole story of our nation’s heritage for the benefit of present and future generations,” National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said, according to the press release. “The National Park Service will continue working closely with key stakeholders dedicated to the preservation of Blackwell School, and those directly impacted by the de facto segregation of Mexican Americans during the early 1900s, to preserve and interpret this significant historic site to the public.”
To open the park, the National Park Service will work with the Town of Marfa to acquire the lands, a process which is likely to take more than a year. The National Park Service manages several sites that preserve and share the history of Hispanic and Latino people in the United States.
