What We Do

Following emancipation, formerly enslaved Blacks built communities in Big Thicket and southeast Texas. They lived off the land by homesteading, hunting, and foraging.

Catherine Cooper speaks with Bobby Fieseler about writing "Tinderbox" and the importance of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire in LGB activism as we come up to the 50th anniversary of the fire. The Up Stairs Lounge Fire was an unsolved arson fire at a gay bar in New Orleans on June 24, 1973. With 32 dead, it was the worst mass murder of homosexual Americans in 20th century America.

In 1953, the Eisenhower Administration entered office pledging to clean up the government. As seen with Executive Order 10450, this had devastating effects for thousands of innocent and faithful civil servants. Many LGBTQ Americans were persecuted and faced repercussions from this. Explore this story here.

When Elsa Gidlow first laid eyes on the land above Muir Woods National Monument, she knew it was “the place to realize a dream.” That dream was Druid Heights, her home from the mid-1950s until her death in 1986. As a lesbian writer, poet, and philosopher she refused to conform to mainstream America’s ideas about family, love, and home. Every year she lit a Winter Solstice Fire, a ritual that connected her with women across time.

Deeply involved in human rights in the 1960s and 1970s, Willard Bowman spoke candidly about the prevalence of racial discrimination in Alaska and proposed solutions to address the inequities. Serving African Americans and Alaska Natives across the state, his work left a lasting legacy.

Route 66 is widely recognized around the world as an icon of 20th-century America, emphasizing personal mobility and pursuit of the American Dream. However, the experience of the road was not the same for everyone. The historic Negro Travelers’ Green Book, was an annual travel guide published from 1936 to 1964 by Victor H. Green. It provided Black travelers with information necessary to stay safe and comfortable during the era of segregation prior to the Civil Rights Act.

Learn how two teachers, Mary McLeod Bethune and Carter G. Woodson, worked together to share scholarship on Black History with the public.

In 2018, "Barracoon" by Zora Neale Hurston was published posthumously. This book told the story of Cudjo Lewis a survivor of the "Clotilda", one of the last ships to bring enslaved people from Africa to the United States. In this article learn about Hurston's journey to write this book and Cudjo's story.

You can make a difference! Help restore longleaf pine savannah habitat in Big Thicket by planting trees and native plants with us on Martin Luther King Day and Presidents' Day.

To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, Mount Rushmore National Memorial is excited to open a new outdoor exhibit focused on Lakota ethnobotany, star knowledge, and sacred sites.