Lawmakers push to elevate Ill. site of 1908 race riot

摘要

The historic site of a 1908 race riot in Springfield, Ill., that helped spur the creation of the NAACP may soon be inline for a promotion to national monument status.The site, where a white mob killed six African Americans and burned Black homes and businesses, has receivedplenty of attention in the past year.In August, then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt made the site the 30th addition to the African American CivilRights Network, which seeks to bring attention to events linked to the civil rights movement (Greenwire, Aug. 21,2020).And in December, a COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress and signed by then-President Trump ordered theNational Park Service to conduct a study to determine whether the site should become part of the NPS portfolio,which now includes 423 units. Those studies take an average of three years to complete (Greenwire, Dec. 28,2020).