This is a new national monument on the 18th century Carlisle Army Barracks in Pennsylvania, which also hosts the Army War College and the Army Heritage and Education Center. The base is currently open to visitors on weekdays, but there are no park site visitor services yet.
“All the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
Richard Pratt, founder & superintendent
From 1879 to 1918, towards the end of its War on Native America, the US Army established a boarding school here, a re-education camp far from native reservations. There are only a few Native American graves left on base, as many were repatriated by law after 1990, but otherwise, not much remains of the school that once set the standard for ‘assimilation’. Around 8,000 children from 150 tribes were taken from their parents and shipped off to this school—as happened at other schools across the country—for the expressed purpose of ending their culture. Considered a step forward from massacres, forcing natives to become white was the primary goal from day one. While today, many such students might gain PhDs in Native American studies in recognition of the value of their cultural contributions to our civilization, prejudice meant there was practically only one way for these students to excel: on the field.
Unlike college admissions or job hiring, there is no effective way to cheat by race in sports like track & field. Once allowed to compete, the results are judged fairly, regardless of color. The field above is still known as ‘Indian Field’, but officially it is named after Frank MT Pleasant Jr, a student—and member of the Tuscarora Nation—here for 12 years around 1900, known for his prowess in football and track. In 1908, he placed 6th in two events at the Olympics in London. He earned his degree in 1910 at the neighboring Dickinson College, the first native to do so. He served honorably in WWI and later played semi-pro football. While he and other athletes like baseball hall of famer ‘Chief’ Bender are remembered here, they’re all overshadowed by another classmate.
In 1907, a Sac & Fox youth was walking by the track above when he stopped to watch the high jumpers. He had been to many different schools growing up, and he had run away from most. This was his second time here; the first cut short by the death of his father. Jim Thorpe walked up to the bar and jumped 5’9”—a school record—in his street clothes. He would excel at virtually every sport he tried: ballroom dancing, baseball, boxing, handball, lacrosse—a native sport—, and tennis. The football coach, ‘Pop’ Warner, didn’t want his school’s track star injured, but Jim asked for a chance to play. He ran through the opposing team back and forth, and then said, “coach, nobody is going to tackle Jim”. And nobody did. Jim set all kinds of college football records, rushing almost 2,000 yards a season, scoring hundreds of points with over 25 touchdowns a year, according to incomplete records.
At the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, Jim Thorpe competed in the two most challenging competitions, the pentathlon and the decathlon, which require mastery of 5 and 10 different events respectively: 100 m, 400 m, long jump, high jump and shot put for the pentathlon and the same five plus the discus, javelin, 110 hurdles, pole vault and 1500 m for the decathlon. Despite someone stealing his shoes before the competition, Thorpe found two mismatched shoes and still won 8 of 15 events outright, winning the gold medal in both combined events. Later, Thorpe would go on to play professional baseball, basketball and football. Considering how well-rounded he was, in my opinion, Jim Thorpe is the greatest athlete in history.
So, if you want to take a lap on the same track where Jim Thorpe began his athletic career, bring a map and your real id and go to the base visitor center between 10 am and 3 pm on a weekday—not a Federal holiday—and get your criminal background check. But consider the cultural cost of Indian schools, the families broken, the languages silenced, the oral histories lost, the natural and medicinal secrets forgotten, and the songs and dances not taught, just so white people would feel more comfortable with Native Americans. Fortunately, the Sac and Fox Nation survives in Oklahoma—they were removed from the Great Lakes region in the 1870s—and many other tribes still thrive today as well.
Delaware has three schools that are recently designated NPS affiliate sites of the Brown v Board of Education NHP in Kansas.
The very small school in Delaware above, Hockessin Colored School #107C, was funded by one of the du Ponts—owners of palatial Longwood and Nemours estates nearby—for the purpose of segregating black students from their extravagantly outfitted white schools. Hockessin students were also given cast-off old textbooks and denied transportation. Louis Redding sued on behalf of one of the students in Bulah v Gephart in 1951, winning the case in 1952, and later combining several other cases on appeal to argue Brown v Board of Education at the Supreme Court.
Claymont High School below, now a community center, allowed 12 African American students to attend in 1952, the first students effectively integrating into a segregated state school system after a legal challenge that became a key part of Brown.
Previously, African American students from all over Delaware could only attend Howard High School below, often without public transportation. Brown recognized that segregation in and of itself was illegal discrimination in public education. Read more about the road to equal education.
Equality is the ideal we have yet to achieve. Jefferson wrote of equality in our Declaration of Independence. Our Constitution did not recognize it. Lincoln guided the country through a Civil War for equality, but then the country slid backwards again. But we must try.
W.E.B. Du Bois had supported and tracked inequality, progress and hope for schooling in the African American community of Prince Edward County in 1898. The state of Virginia revised their post Civil War Constitution in 1902 to permit racial segregation. In 1951, the inequality had long been unconscionable. While white students had cafeterias, gymnasiums, school busses and laboratories, black students needed warm clothes and umbrellas inside tar paper shacks.
Frustrated by the systemic racism that prevented adults—who faced retribution for asking for change—from fixing the problem, the students decided to act by themselves. 16 year old Barbara Johns addressed her fellow students, banging her shoe on the podium, and called a strike, asking for cooperation and saying “don’t be afraid”. The students all went on strike, and their minister said they should contact the NAACP. Barbara Johns called Richmond lawyer Oliver Hill to help.
Their case, which lost, became part of the Brown v. Board of Education appeal, but the Prince Edward County school district refused to follow the Supreme Court ruling. A new school was built, but rather than comply with integration, even after Little Rock, the Governor of Virginia closed schools for five years. Martin Luther King visited in 1962. JFK and RFK publicly excoriated Prince Edward County in 1963. Finally, the Supreme Court ruled again, saying “time… has run out”.
Every student should know this story, which began with a student walkout to demand a new school building. I was moved to tears listening to Barbara Johns’ recreated speech in the school auditorium and thinking about their courage in the face of terrible injustice. If you can visit, go and listen for yourself. This affiliate site in Virginia is a powerful part of our Civil Rights history.
In 1950 a group of black students were denied admission to the then white school above (now a middle school in a predominantly African American neighborhood). At the time, black schools were severely overcrowded, while white schools had plenty of empty seats for students. Integration was proposed to make education more fair. A law professor at Howard University sued the DC school board president on behalf of one of the students, Spottswood Bolling, pictured to the left of the old entrance above. Bolling v Sharpe became part of the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v Board of Education. This park is affiliated with Brown v Board NHP in Kansas, and it is the only NPS affiliate site in DC.
Rational thinking is work, which benefits from training and accumulated skill, but requires mental effort and discipline. There are specific tools and techniques designed for analyzing different subjects, and using appropriate techniques for your rational analysis is integral to achieve your end goal or solve your question. Education helps, but having knowledge or training is no substitute for doing the work of thinking logically and for applying logic consistently throughout your life. Occasionally over-trained people can be thoughtless and just go through the motions, rather than observe carefully and think through each important step. Over-thinking happens when you hesitate to follow through to your logical conclusion, especially when you are irrationally concerned with whether your answer is acceptable. Above all, rational thinking must be honest and accurate, with complete integrity, from beginning to end.
For many, simply making an effort to think rationally is an improvement over common instinctual thinking. Try to be dispassionate, ask yourself questions, observe the facts neutrally, see if you can get more information, use logic to figure out what’s going on, consider the probable outcomes, be skeptical and find ways to test to see if you are correct. Congratulations, Madame Curie, you are following the scientific method.
Many self-professed rational thinkers divide humanity by intelligence quotient. If someone is not rational, logically they must be irrational. If you’re rational, you’re smart. If you’re not rational, you must be stupid. This simplistic view of thinking is ignorant. Folks who cherish their loved ones, have strong bonds of friendship, work hard, and are well-liked in their communities, do not appreciate being called stupid. So, one step to improve rational thinking is to recognize that IQ doesn’t measure all ways of thinking and to realize that other ways of thinking are both valid and often more appropriate in different situations.
Even predominantly rational thinkers must be familiar with instinctual thinkers. While you were achieving in school academically, the instinct-driven majority likely did not make school easy for you socially. Were you “a nerd”? Did people criticize your hairstyle or fashion choices? As an adult, have you found yourself overseen by someone more politically adept than you? Meritocracy often eludes rational thinkers. Turns out that the attention to social cues, team dynamics and competition for status, which you might ignore, matter more than merely knowing the answer.
Also, it is not rational to feel smug about your IQ. Your concern with your status betrays your instinctual thinking. Perhaps calling others stupid is a childhood defense mechanism to the trauma of being bullied or ostracized as a nerd? Truly rational thinking is not driven by human emotions or primal urges. When a seemingly rational argument turns out to be driven by a deep-seated instinct, it may be false, deceptive and biased, and since it is not the product of rational thinking, then it is irrational (e.g. most political arguments).
Another error is to conflate knowledge with rational thinking. Memory is over-prized, and speed of recall is confused with intelligence. Nonsense. A good rule of thumb is that if you can do it in your sleep, it’s probably instinctual thinking, not methodical rational thought. I recall people, places, conversations and scenes vividly in my dreams, while being blissfully unconscious, and I might even talk in my sleep. Clearly, remembering or reciting facts is not proof of rational thinking, let alone consciousness. No, only when you have the intelligence to understand which facts are most relevant and actionable before offering a solution, have you demonstrated rational thought. I once aced a test without reading the chapter by glancing over my classmate’s notes two minutes before the test, even though she only got a B-. I understood the concepts better than her, knew what was important and accurately predicted the questions, even though she had memorized all the facts.
When the origin of your thinking begins in one way, then the results will likely reflect that way. You may believe you are thinking rationally, but if you began with a different way of thinking, your final report will probably reflect it. Even if you assert your rationality mid-process, you may have ignored crucial data or have already structured your approach to achieve a specific result. People walking by your desk watching you work on your spreadsheet believe you are thinking rationally. Your boss skimming your report believes it to be the product of rational thinking. But, if your motive is not rational, then your analysis will lack the integrity of accurate rational thinking.
Perhaps you are at work looking at the numbers on your screen as you usually do on Monday morning. You are not responsible for the data, there’s no risk to you, and if you were not being paid to look, you would not check them. You are detached and dispassionate. You do not care. But the numbers show a different pattern than usual. The change raises several logical questions, so you look into it. That is a rational way of starting to think.
Suppose instead that there’s a reason you decided to look into the numbers. Maybe the numbers are personal to you. Maybe a positive report will help a cause you support, or maybe the results will prove a pet theory you have that you feel deserves recognition. Perhaps the results show that your friend is not on track to meet quota, or maybe you are not. The boss is just looking for an excuse to embarrass you at the staff meeting this afternoon. In this situation, your instinct to protect your self esteem is likely driving your thinking, so you do not begin thinking rationally.
The method of thinking you use does not matter, if your thinking begins on the wrong track. You may employ advanced analytics, but if your driving goal is to support your cause, your report will not be entirely fair, which is not rational. You may write a book with charts, graphs and long-winded, elaborately structured arguments, but if it is done to support a figment of your imagination, then it is not rational. You may decide to postpone your analysis until after your boss goes on vacation tomorrow. You may believe that is a rational tactic to protect your personal interests, but it is instinct-driven thinking.
The most important step towards better rational thinking is to begin rationally. Are you too invested in the cause to be certain that your analysis will be impartial? Do you have a pre-conceived notion of what the numbers will show? Can you get control of your personal feelings and conduct the analysis rationally? You may need to ask a neutral person to do the analysis. You may need to find a rational way to eliminate your bias. Or you may need to grab a hold of yourself, be as professional as possible, and let the numbers speak for themselves.
That may be obvious to you at work, but can you be equally dispassionate when making rational decisions about yourself and your loved ones? I’m not asking you to suppress your natural instincts. Be aware of them, and control them. Then apply rational thinking to your problem honestly, without instinct biasing your beginning, with appropriate logical methods, to arrive at a sound conclusion with integrity. Then you can decide to do what you want, but at least you can be confident that your thinking is correct.
“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.“
University City, the main campus of UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is a World Heritage Site, and it was founded in 1551, just four months after the oldest university in the Americas was founded in Peru. It is autonomous, meaning free to teach without government interference, although the PRI government did kill hundreds of students in 1968, during the Tlatelolco massacre. The faculty and alumni include all Mexican Nobel winners to date. The north face of the 10 story Central Library (above) is covered with Aztec mural mosaics by Juan O’Gorman, friend of Diego Rivera.
Often, there’s a local reluctance to allow government outsiders to tell ‘our’ history. Communities will occasionally refuse to cooperate or turn over any control over their sites to the National Park Service. Reagan’s boyhood home famously stays independent, concerned that his legacy might be tarnished. Sometimes politicians get involved directly in changing the way history is told, and even bend the narrative away from self-evident facts, such as at Andrew Johnson’s site.
Debates often become heated with charges that one side is “revising history” to fit preconceived views. But honest historians do not rewrite history to suit their tastes. A good historian should try to revise their understanding of history, always to make it more accurate. In the UK, “revising” means “studying for exams”, meaning reviewing the material to understand it better. Sometimes a new fact comes along, such as a DNA test proving who is related to Thomas Jefferson. Views and interests change too, which also require us to revise our understanding of history, as we have new questions to answer. Future history books must be updated to include the most accurate information and to address the needs of future generations.
Bad historians ignore new facts, preferring the old version they learned, even if false. Some even intentionally mislead children to try to hide shameful episodes, claiming to protect them from the truth. Some dishonestly smear historical figures or downplay historic events in order to promote a world view based on propaganda, such as what happened with General Grant. Lying to kids or trying to brainwash the public to further a dishonest agenda is never acceptable.
But the park service has experience and expertise to help sites reach more people accurately and effectively. They hire researchers to find more information to expand everyone’s knowledge. They conduct renovations carefully to restore sites to how they appeared at specific times. They know how to create films, displays and foreign language brochures. Sometimes the park service gets it wrong, prompting debate, review and new efforts. Sometimes the site is best managed by a specialized local group, often in partnership with the park service, such as the Tenement Museum in NYC. Still, the park service’s job is to preserve, inspire, educate and make sites more fun for all. So typically, it’s at least worth letting them help.
I have a good education, do extra research on each site and form my own views, but I also try to understand, verify facts and frequently ask questions. Almost always, the park rangers can quickly disabuse me of erroneous views, since they are experts. Occasionally, I meet the odd ranger with views in contradiction to the facts or find errors on display, and I bring those to the attention of other park service employees. Getting the stories right can be difficult, but almost always the park rangers are determined to do their best to tell the story correctly, effectively and well. That’s what they do.
I mention this now, after visiting the Gulf Islands site. In both Mississippi and Florida, the park service does a good job in accurately telling the history of the gulf coast, including the dark history of the Civil War. Unfortunately, the US military turned over the most important historical sites, Forts Gaines and Morgan, over to the state of Alabama, where I’ve observed troubling patterns. I believe the national park service would do a much better job telling the history.
Visitors to Fort Morgan might not learn which side won the Battle of Mobile Bay or why that matters. The information may be there, but it is not presented effectively. Here are my recent notes.
Website focuses on the history of old fort Bowyer more than the Civil War era Fort Morgan.
Park brochure timeline covers fort’s history but buries highlights in obscure details.
The Battle of Mobile Bay battery site and plaques are not shown on the map.
Civil War panel neglects critical Union victories at the end, such as Richmond, Petersburg and the surrender at Appomattox.
Flag pavilion plaques show the US flag as only operational in 1813, ignoring the period from 1864 to the present.
Posters in gift shop celebrate the sinking of the Union ship Tecumseh and the early success of the CSS Tennessee.
Bookstore focuses on Confederate defense of Mobile 50 miles away, rather than on the pivotal Union naval victory of Mobile Bay 50 yards away.
There are only two ways to reach the Battle of Mobile Bay battery site.
1) go straight through to the far side of the fort, enter a series of tunnels (use your phone for light) on the right, wander through a maze of passageways, pass through several huge empty rooms, find a small doorway around a corner leading outside, return on the grass between the inner and outer walls, cross the moat, climb a ramp (no handholds) to the top of the outer wall, climb steps through some fortifications, climb some more steps, and go around the outside of the fence that appears to block your path. Or….
2) go behind the restrooms on the far side of the parking lot, climb up through a different battery of fortifications, walk along to the far left, find a narrow stairway up a hill, climb it even though it appears to be blocked at the top, wander along the top of the outer wall to the outer edge of the fence mentioned in step 1, circumvent it and climb up to the top above Battery Thomas.
In neither case are there any signs, arrows, map references, guideposts or signals to find the spot, and it’s best to wear sturdy non-slip shoes. Finding the well-written and illustrated displays (e.g. photo above) was a nice surprise, as I only climbed up there because I got lost exploring and wanted to get a look at the ship channel. Frankly, hiding the panels appears to be an intentional effort to obscure or erase the true and important history that led to the end of the Confederacy and slavery.
If the park service managed the site, I’m sure they would tell the story of one of our country’s greatest naval victories accurately and effectively, preserving that important history, inspiring, educating and delighting future generations. Especially today, on the first day of Black History Month, it’s critical to get history right. That’s why we need the NPS to help us with our history.
Booker Taliaferro Washington slept outside with the farm animals on the tobacco farm above or crowded in with many other slaves and enslaved children on rag-covered dirt floors. His price was recorded, but no birthday. When Lincoln freed all slaves forever, Booker went to work mining salt for his stepfather. Realizing that this was not much of a life for a boy, he sought education, first trying to teach himself from a spelling book, and then walking 500 miles across Virginia to an African American school near Fort Monroe on the coast. He trained to be a teacher and eventually was asked to start what became Tuskegee Institute, where he hired another teacher born into slavery, George Washington Carver.
Booker T. became the most influential educator in America, in terms of building institutions, guiding policy, and teaching teachers of illiterate freed slaves and under-educated African Americans. WEB DuBois criticized him for being too accommodating with segregation, but Booker T. quietly supported the same anti-segregation campaigns, while working to improve the lives of as many African Americans as possible. Many celebrated his accomplishments, including Teddy Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie, Harvard (first African American honorary degree), and Eisenhower, who designated this monument. Others resisted, including those in Congress who refused to support or fully fund a park and those in the community who were hostile to his student building a memorial here.
“The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.”
An advisor to half a dozen presidents, founder of schools, civics organizations and the archive above, Mary McLeod Bethune was a dynamo who devoted her life to advancing the lives of people who had been denied equal rights for centuries. Her home office in DC, the headquarters for the African American women’s movement, is just up the street from the White House, where she worked in FDR’s administration, as the first African American woman to lead a federal department. She later was the only African American woman to attend the founding of the UN in San Francisco. She worked with Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, WEB Du Bois, Maggie L Walker, Nannie Burroughs, and Carter Woodson, and she skillfully raised funds from John D. Rockefeller and many white elites at the Palmetto Club in Florida.
The house has recently reopened after some renovations, but the interior rooms and exhibits are still being reorganized. Given the extensive race and gender barriers, the home often had to put up visitors in the top floor, who were unwelcome at DC hotels. The upstairs office was full of busy staff, managing events, publishing articles, and coordinating activities nationally. Downstairs the parlor hosted guests and the conference room hosted important meetings and kept detailed records. The tour guide was exceptionally knowledgeable and provided the context needed to judge the scale of her contributions to our history. Guaranteed to learn here.
From 1889 to 1965, the school was segregated, separate but equal by ‘social pressure’ (i.e. racism) in Texas: Hispanic only. Our diversity is a great strength and should be celebrated, not used to divide us. When the Civil Rights movement integrated Marfa’s schools, Blackwell closed. Later some of the proud alumni organized to preserve their school building and grounds, and President Biden has now designated it an official park site, joining other schools in the system, such as Abiel Smith, Penn, Brown, and Little Rock, and joining César Chávez in covering modern Latino history.
[Updated] On 17 July 2024, Blackwell became the 430th park unit, after completing acquisition of property from Marfa’s school district. When I visited, Blackwell was only open noon to 4pm on weekends—not the same time zone as El Paso—, and restoration plans were being decided. Inside are personal photos that bring back the old days, describing Principal Blackwell, teachers, students, athletes and community events. Hopefully, future exhibits will help bring those stories to life with a park film.
In 1955, Hollywood came to Marfa to film James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in Giant. Before that the biggest thing to happen in Marfa was their baseball team, the Indians, competing for the championship in ‘29 and ‘48. Nowadays, Marfa is known for eclectic art exhibits and UFO’s. Just outside of town is a Prada display by the roadside, and if you go the other way, people watch the mysterious lights on the horizon that just have to be aliens. (Really, there’s no other explanation possible!).
I passed nearby Marfa when visiting Fort Davis, and it’s fascinating to me that the original stone school here was built while the fort was still in operation. I recommend staying at one of the quirky campgrounds like El Cósmico which has Tesla engineer designed Jupe shelters and getting local wine and pizza at Para Llevar (to go en Español). And just wander around this weird town that defies becoming a ghost.
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