This park, once known as the Reconstruction Era National Monument, marks a chapter of American history still being written into memory. This site was established by President Barack Obama in January 2017 to preserve and commemorate activities of the Reconstruction Era that followed the American Civil War. It was the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to the Reconstruction Era, and today is administered by the National Park Service.
The story of this place reaches back years: the campaign to create a national monument spanned fifteen years, beginning in the final days of the Bill Clinton administration, when outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt visited the Beaufort area accompanied by historian Eric Foner, author of Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877. Early efforts met resistance in Congress and met opposition from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, yet the idea endured. In 2019 the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed March 12, 2019 by President Donald Trump, re-designated the site as a national historical park.
Picture Bruce Babbitt and Eric Foner walking this same ground, and the fifteen years of advocacy that finally gave these landscapes their name and protection.