Erin Devlin, assistant professor of history and American studies, was interviewed recently on the National Parks Traveler podcast. She discussed her research into sites in national parks in Virginia that were associated with segregation during the first half of the 20th century. She initially looked at all of the parks in Virginia before 1964, and then focused specifically on six case study parks, including Shenandoah National Park, Colonial National Park in Tidewater, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Parks, Prince William Forest Park, and George Washington National Birthplace Monument. “Any park that was established before 1945, you should presume that the facilities there were segregated,” she said. “This is a history we can find imprinted across the Parks Service landscape.”

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Assistant Professor of History and American Studies Erin Devlin’s collaboration with the National Park Service was the focus of an article in The Free Lance-Star. Devlin is working with NPS to develop a historic resource study that will explore the practice of racial segregation in national parks throughout Virginia during the first half of the 20th century. According to the article, “NPS has installed a wayside exhibit outside the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center on the history of segregation at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.”

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