The Department of Interior has designated 16 sites in 11 states as new National Historic Landmarks. You're probably thinking, "Great, more Civil War battlefields and statues of dead white guys." Well think again. These sites commemorate a more recent slice of U.S. history.
For example:
- The Aaron Copland House in Cortlandt Manor, NY, where the famed composer and musician worked and lived from 1960 until his death in 1990.
- The Forty Acres in Delano, California, where Cesar Chavez organized the United Farmworkers of America -- our nation's first permanent agricultural labor union.
- The Lyceum in the Circle Historic District of Oxford, Mississippi, the site of riots and civil protest between September 30 and October 1, 1962, as James Meredith succeeded in transferring from a traditionally black college to become a student at the previously all-white University of Mississippi.
- The Shreveport Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, home of KWKH’s Louisiana Hayride, country music’s most innovative and experimental radio show. Airing nationwide from 1948 to 1958, the Hayride served as a launching pad to the Grand Ole Opry and beyond for many of country music's biggest stars.
National Historic Landmarks are buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that have been determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be nationally significant in American history and culture. Fewer than 2,500 locations are currently designated as National Historic Landmarks.
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