Overview

The first-ever study of state park segregation across the Jim Crow SouthWinner, J. B. Jackson Book Prize from the Foundation for Landscape StudiesAward of Merit, American Association for State and Local History An outgrowth of earlier park movements, the state park movement in the twentieth century sought to expand public access to scenic places. But under severe Jim Crow restrictions in the South, access for Blacks was routinely and officially denied. The New Deal brought a massive wave of state park expansion, and advocacy groups pressured the National Park Service to design and construct segregated facilities for Blacks. These parks were typically substandard in relation to ""white only"" areas.After World War II, the NAACP filed federal lawsuits that demanded park integration, and southern park agencies reacted with attempts to expand access to additional segregated facilities, hoping they could demonstrate that their parks achieved the ""separate but equal"" standard. But the courts consistently ruled in favor of integration, leading to the end of state park segregation by the mid-1960s. Even though it has largely faded from public awareness, the imprint of segregated state park design remains visible throughout the South.William E. O'Brien illuminates this untold facet of Jim Crow history in the first-ever study of state park segregation. Emphasizing the historical trajectory of events leading to integration, his book underscores the profound inequality that persisted for decades in the number, size, and quality of state park spaces provided for Black visitors across the Jim Crow South.

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9781952620355

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Reviews

...a fascinating, deeply researched, and richly illustrated book, William O'Brien tells the story of segregated state parks and recovers a history that states have worked assiduously to erase..... State parks, O'Brien convincingly shows, became important battlegrounds in the legal and bureaucratic struggle over segregation. The history of these places offers new insights into the way states and localities utilized federal programs and dollars to bolster Jim Crow and extend its reach, the cautious approach and ambivalent attitude of New Deal-era agencies toward southern defiance of federal law, and the evolution of the NAACP's legal strategy for securing African Americans' civil rights. --Andrew Kahrl, Professor, University of Virginia Southern Spaces O'Brien has completed a remarkable work of scholarship in landscape history that makes it possible for us, finally, to understand this formerly obscured, but clearly significant, category of American parks, those created under the 'separate but equal' doctrine. --Ethan Carr Author, Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea O'Brien's book addresses the omission of race from both landscape architecture and the study of park history, and shows that park design was, like many activities, racially discriminatory. We may not like this history, but it is important to examine it. --Heidi Hohmann, College of Design, Iowa State University O'Brien's close study of policy, planning, and design processes offers an unparalleled perspective on how architects, landscape architects, and planners, serving at the behest of local and state officials, designed racially exclusive parks, which in turn created segregated state park systems. -- Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians William E. O'Brien's Landscapes of Exclusion is required reading for anyone seeking to understand how racial segregation informed park planning practices across the American South.... Its sweeping scope and investigation of multiple state systems allow O'Brien to identify the larger patterns that shaped the region and outdoor recreation more broadly. --Erin Krutkow Devlin, Author of Remember Little Rock

O'Brien has completed a remarkable work of scholarship in landscape history that makes it possible for us, finally, to understand this formerly obscured, but clearly significant, category of American parks, those created under the 'separate but equal' doctrine. --Ethan Carr Author, Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea O'Brien's book addresses the omission of race from both landscape architecture and the study of park history, and shows that park design was, like many activities, racially discriminatory. We may not like this history, but it is important to examine it. --Heidi Hohmann, College of Design, Iowa State University O'Brien's close study of policy, planning, and design processes offers an unparalleled perspective on how architects, landscape architects, and planners, serving at the behest of local and state officials, designed racially exclusive parks, which in turn created segregated state park systems. -- Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians William E. O'Brien's Landscapes of Exclusion is required reading for anyone seeking to understand how racial segregation informed park planning practices across the American South.... Its sweeping scope and investigation of multiple state systems allow O'Brien to identify the larger patterns that shaped the region and outdoor recreation more broadly. --Erin Krutkow Devlin, Author of Remember Little Rock

Anyone exploring landscape, planning, and public space history will find the book interesting. O'Brien has crafted an intensively researched history of the political, social, racial, and environmental implications of Jim Crow practices and the unfair distribution of parks in the southern United States. His work can withstand present day attempts to deny history and turn facts into divisive political weapons.-- The Dirt, July 2022 ...a fascinating, deeply researched, and richly illustrated book, William O'Brien tells the story of segregated state parks and recovers a history that states have worked assiduously to erase..... State parks, O'Brien convincingly shows, became important battlegrounds in the legal and bureaucratic struggle over segregation. The history of these places offers new insights into the way states and localities utilized federal programs and dollars to bolster Jim Crow and extend its reach, the cautious approach and ambivalent attitude of New Deal-era agencies toward southern defiance of federal law, and the evolution of the NAACP's legal strategy for securing African Americans' civil rights. --Andrew Kahrl, Professor, University of Virginia Southern Spaces O'Brien has completed a remarkable work of scholarship in landscape history that makes it possible for us, finally, to understand this formerly obscured, but clearly significant, category of American parks, those created under the 'separate but equal' doctrine. --Ethan Carr Author, Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea O'Brien's book addresses the omission of race from both landscape architecture and the study of park history, and shows that park design was, like many activities, racially discriminatory. We may not like this history, but it is important to examine it. --Heidi Hohmann, College of Design, Iowa State University O'Brien's close study of policy, planning, and design processes offers an unparalleled perspective on how architects, landscape architects, and planners, serving at the behest of local and state officials, designed racially exclusive parks, which in turn created segregated state park systems. -- Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians William E. O'Brien's Landscapes of Exclusion is required reading for anyone seeking to understand how racial segregation informed park planning practices across the American South.... Its sweeping scope and investigation of multiple state systems allow O'Brien to identify the larger patterns that shaped the region and outdoor recreation more broadly. --Erin Krutkow Devlin, Author of Remember Little Rock

Author Information

William E. O'Brien is an associate professor of environmental studies at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University. His work on environment and race has appeared in journals including Historical Geography, Geographical Review, Human Ecology, Journal of Geography, and Ethics, Place and Environment. He is a 2014 recipient of the University Award for Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching.

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