Latest news with #historicpreservation
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Emmett Till national monument at risk of removal from Trump's anti-DEI initiatives
Tallahatchie County, Mississippi — There are 138 National Monuments across the U.S., but for the first time in nearly 100 years, they're eligible to be sold for parts. This Juneteenth, some of the protected lands in jeopardy commemorate important moments in American civil rights history, including some newer monuments like the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. "We are seeing this effort to erase and reverse history and historic preservation," said historian Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources and government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association. "This is turning quickly into a dream deferred." Spears advocated for years, alongside several community members, to get federal protections for the areas in Mississippi and Chicago that tell the story of Emmett Till — a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was kidnapped in the middle of the night and brutally lynched in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a White woman while visiting family in Mississippi. "His badly decomposed body was taken from the water, and officials in this area wanted to have him buried immediately to sort of get rid of the evidence," Spears explained. "His mother insisted that he'd be sent back to Chicago, where they had an open casket funeral. And images of Till's badly decomposed body in that open casket really sparked the modern civil rights movement." Protections to preserve this history finally came in 2023, when a monument consisting of two sites in Mississippi and one in Illinois, was designated by former President Joe Biden. One site is located at Graball Landing along the Tallahatchie River near Glendora, Mississippi, where Till's body was found. The second is at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where his confessed killers were found not guilty by an all-White jury. The third is located at Chicago's Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where Till's funeral was held. Spears says he and his colleagues have been working to expand the monument, not remove or shrink it. "Let's make sure it doesn't happen to anybody else's son ever again," Spears said. But just as the stroke of a president's pen preserved these areas, it could now take them away. A legal opinion released by the Justice Department earlier this month gives presidents the ability to revoke or shrink certain national monuments for the first time since the 1930s. The opinion comes as part of a movement against diversity, equity and inclusion, with some land reportedly under consideration to be used for mineral extractions. It's not just national monuments that are at risk. Under newly proposed budget cuts for the National Park Service of nearly $1 billion, Spears says more than 300 park sites would be forced to shut down. Those budget cuts could also potentially see the closure of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, according to Spears and former National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. "It's like amputating an arm for a hangnail. It's a complete overreaction," Spears says. Sams says the agency has lost 13% of its staff already since he left his post earlier this year. Sams was involved in the designation of five different National Monuments signed by Biden, including the Till monument. He says if the monument were to close, it would be "very sad and egregious." "People don't like to look at their past when it shows a negative light of who we are, and I can understand that nobody likes to look at their own personal past that may have a negative light, but we also know that in order to learn from our own history, we also have to learn from our past mistakes,' Sams told CBS News. "And we, as Americans, have never been actually scared to do so, and I don't think we should be now. We look at our past, and we know that from our past mistakes that we have become stronger." Currently, the Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument — both located in California — are under consideration for revocation or being sold for parts. The Baaj Nwaavjo I'tāh Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument is also under consideration reportedly due to its uranium supply. Judy Cummings is touring America's national monuments this summer with her daughter and granddaughter. They drove from Wisconsin to see the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument sites in North Mississippi. Asked about the potential for sites like this to close, Cummings said, "it makes me want to weep and it makes me furious at the same time." When asked about the potential removal of national monuments, White House spokesperson Anne Kelly told CBS News in a statement, "Under President Trump's leadership, Secretary Burgum is keeping our parks ready for peak season, ensuring they are in pristine condition for visitors, and restoring truth and sanity to depictions of American history in line with the President's Executive Order. The President is simultaneously following through on his promise to 'Drill, Baby, Drill' and restore American energy dominance." And in a separate statement provided to to CBS News, the Department of Interior said: "Under President Trump's leadership, we're advancing strategic reforms to maximize resources and improve park operations. These efforts will make our parks more efficient, better maintained, and more enjoyable for the American people, while keeping conservation efforts strong and effective. By modernizing how we manage assets and facilities, we're ensuring our parks can serve future generations even better." "You can't just do away with more than two-thirds of the National Park System because it makes sense from a government efficiency standpoint," Spears said. "That's not what we want." According to a recent study, about half of the current National Parks first began as National Monuments, including the iconic Grand Canyon. According to Spears, every $1 invested in a National Park site returns about $15 to the communities that it is located in. "That's an enormous, enormous return on investment," Spears said. It is also an investment in the visitors too. "I don't really have words," said Nicole Cummings, Judy's daughter. "I just kind of get goosebumps and it's just really powerful." SpaceX Starship upper stage blows up Hurricane Erick approaches Mexico with destructive winds, major storm surge Biden to speak at Juneteenth event in Texas
CBS News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
National monument honoring Emmett Till at risk of removal from Trump's DEI initiatives, budget cuts
Tallahatchie County, Mississippi — There are 138 National Monuments across the U.S., but for the first time in nearly 100 years, they're eligible to be sold for parts. This Juneteenth, some of the protected lands in jeopardy commemorate important moments in American civil rights history, including some newer monuments like the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. "We are seeing this effort to erase and reverse history and historic preservation," said historian Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources and government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association. "This is turning quickly into a dream deferred." Spears advocated for years, alongside several community members, to get federal protections for the areas in Mississippi and Chicago that tell the story of Emmett Till — a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was kidnapped in the middle of the night and brutally lynched in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a White woman while visiting family in Mississippi. "His badly decomposed body was taken from the water, and officials in this area wanted to have him buried immediately to sort of get rid of the evidence," Spears explained. "His mother insisted that he'd be sent back to Chicago, where they had an open casket funeral. And images of Till's badly decomposed body in that open casket really sparked the modern civil rights movement." Protections to preserve this history finally came in 2023, when a monument consisting of two sites in Mississippi and one in Illinois, was designated by former President Joe Biden. One site is located at Graball Landing along the Tallahatchie River near Glendora, Mississippi, where Till's body was found. The second is at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where his confessed killers were found not guilty by an all-White jury. The third is located at Chicago's Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where Till's funeral was held. Spears says he and his colleagues have been working to expand the monument, not remove or shrink it. "Let's make sure it doesn't happen to anybody else's son ever again," Spears said. But just as the stroke of a president's pen preserved these areas, it could now take them away. A legal opinion released by the Justice Department earlier this month gives presidents the ability to revoke or shrink certain national monuments for the first time since the 1930s. The opinion comes as part of a movement against diversity, equity and inclusion, with some land reportedly under consideration to be used for mineral extractions. It's not just national monuments that are at risk. Under newly proposed budget cuts for the National Park Service of nearly $1 billion, Spears says more than 300 park sites would be forced to shut down. Those budget cuts could also potentially see the closure of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, according to Spears and former National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. "It's like amputating an arm for a hangnail. It's a complete overreaction," Spears says. Sams says the agency has lost 13% of its staff already since he left his post earlier this year. Sams was involved in the designation of five different National Monuments signed by Biden, including the Till monument. He says if the monument were to close, it would be "very sad and egregious." "People don't like to look at their past when it shows a negative light of who we are, and I can understand that nobody likes to look at their own personal past that may have a negative light, but we also know that in order to learn from our own history, we also have to learn from our past mistakes,' Sams told CBS News. "And we, as Americans, have never been actually scared to do so, and I don't think we should be now. We look at our past, and we know that from our past mistakes that we have become stronger." Currently, the Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument — both located in California — are under consideration for revocation or being sold for parts. The Baaj Nwaavjo I'tāh Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument is also under consideration reportedly due to its uranium supply. Judy Cummings is touring America's national monuments this summer with her daughter and granddaughter. They drove from Wisconsin to see the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument sites in North Mississippi. Asked about the potential for sites like this to close, Cummings said, "it makes me want to weep and it makes me furious at the same time." When asked about the potential removal of national monuments, White House spokesperson Anne Kelly told CBS News in a statement, "Under President Trump's leadership, Secretary Burgum is keeping our parks ready for peak season, ensuring they are in pristine condition for visitors, and restoring truth and sanity to depictions of American history in line with the President's Executive Order. The President is simultaneously following through on his promise to 'Drill, Baby, Drill' and restore American energy dominance." And in a separate statement provided to to CBS News, the Department of Interior said: "Under President Trump's leadership, we're advancing strategic reforms to maximize resources and improve park operations. These efforts will make our parks more efficient, better maintained, and more enjoyable for the American people, while keeping conservation efforts strong and effective. By modernizing how we manage assets and facilities, we're ensuring our parks can serve future generations even better." "You can't just do away with more than two-thirds of the National Park System because it makes sense from a government efficiency standpoint," Spears said. "That's not what we want." According to a recent study, about half of the current National Parks first began as National Monuments, including the iconic Grand Canyon. According to Spears, every $1 invested in a National Park site returns about $15 to the communities that it is located in. "That's an enormous, enormous return on investment," Spears said. It is also an investment in the visitors too. "I don't really have words," said Nicole Cummings, Judy's daughter. "I just kind of get goosebumps and it's just really powerful."
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Lawsuit asks court to halt Haiku Stairs demolition, citing Hawaii agency flip-flop
An Oʻahu court is being asked to reverse a decision made by the State Historic Preservation Division backing plans by the City and County of Honolulu to demolish the Haʻikū Stairs. The suit was filed in district court Thursday by the Friends of Haʻikū Stairs – a nonprofit that has lobbied for retaining all or part of the 50-year-old mountain path that rises more than 2,000 feet offering climbers spectacular views of the Windward Coast. The city has been trying to dismantle the structure since 2021, but requires the agreement of the State Historic Preservation Division, a branch of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, under Hawaiʻi statutes. The filing asks the court to permanently halt the demolition, alleging that SHPD failed to require the city to 'conduct adequate historic and archaeological surveys of the full project area,' and allowed the city to reject 'a viable alternative to preserve the Stairs.' SHPD had previously expressed a preference for preserving and restoring the structure in a 2019 letter to the city, according to the filing. 'SHPD's preferred alternative would be to keep the Haʻikū Stairs and … and restore the damaged section of the stairs,' the letter read. But on April 9, SHPD wrote to the city's Department of Design and Construction that the demolition could proceed. The Friends of Haʻikū Stairs argue that SHPD's April letter was deficient because it didn't adequately explain why it abandoned its previous support for preservation. 'We just think that SHPD's rapid shift from preservation to demolition without explaining or doing any of the steps necessary under state law was fundamentally wrong and voids the whole process,' Justin Scorza, vice president of the Friends of Haʻikū Stairs, said on Monday. The group had first appealed the letter April 12 with the Hawaiʻi Historic Places Review Board, but the board lacked a quorum to rule on the legality of the letter, Scorza said. DLNR spokesman Dan Dennison said Monday he would not comment on pending litigation. City spokesman Ian Scheuring said the city was confident the Circuit Court does not have jurisdiction over the case and expected the lawsuit to be dismissed. Demolition Already On Hold Pending Appeal The lawsuit is the latest installment in the legal maneuvering around Honolulu''s efforts to demolish the stairs citing safety concerns, liability and security costs. Built during World War II as part of a top-secret naval radio project, the nearly 4,000 stairs remained an off-limits destination for hikers despite being closed in 1987. In 2019, former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell had briefly floated the idea that the county's Department of Parks and Recreation take over the stairs and develop a managed access plan, including addressing traffic jams at the trail's residential access point. But an environmental impact statement in 2020 by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply recommended demolishing the stairs, and the formal decision was made by the Honolulu City Council and Mayor Rick Blangiardi in September 2021. The demolition was meant to take six months and cost $2.6 million but in August 2023 Friends of Haʻikū Stairs asked a court to halt the plan, arguing that the Board of Water Supplies environmental impact statement was out of date. Friends of Haʻikū Stairs lost that decision, but nevertheless, a temporary injunction was placed on the project in June last year, pending a decision by the Intermediate Court of Appeals on whether the lower court erred in its finding. Honolulu filed for an expedited appeal decision in February, saying it had spent nearly $2 million on police overtime to guard the steps from June to December last year. Over 120 arrests for trespass were made during that time, according to the city. Although there have been no reported deaths on the stairs, emergency workers rescued nearly 200 hikers from the trail from 2010 to 2022, the city said. ___ This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Fast Company
3 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Audrey Tang wants to save democracy with ‘pro-social' media
In Bowling Green, Kentucky, almost everyone agrees that historic buildings should be preserved amid developments. The same goes for having more restaurants open after 9 p.m.; investing in existing cultural institutions, such as museums; and hiring more therapists for public schools. Only a few proposals—like Bowling Green getting its own Dave & Buster's—prove deeply polarizing. We know this thanks to a project in which nearly 8,000 residents, or about 10% of Bowling Green's population, submitted their opinions more than a million times over the course of a month about the future of their city. Cities tend to run deep with disagreements about everything from infrastructure to drug legalization—just look at any local Facebook group or subreddit. But the 'pro-social' algorithm used in this project revealed how aligned residents actually were on most topics. Credit for this undertaking is due to the former first digital minister of Taiwan, Audrey Tang, who advised the project, called 'What Could BG Be?' On a cheerful, interactive website, users can explore city residents' hopes and dreams across categories like arts, education, equity and inclusion, housing, and healthcare. The upshot? Most residents have similar desires, and identifying these areas of commonality allows residents to work together toward shared goals. Tang believes in combating what she calls 'anti-social' media. Instead, she's working to use technology to create opportunities for collaboration, thereby strengthening democracies around the world. Born under martial law in Taiwan in the 1980s, for Tang, 'democracy is not some fossilized, 200-year-old tradition,' like it is to some in the U.S. 'Rather,' she says, 'it's something like semiconductors,' which she believes should be updated regularly with the availability of more advanced materials. Now a senior fellow at the safer tech nonprofit Project Liberty Institute, Tang, 44, builds tools that she can leave behind to 'empower the next generation with a wider canvas.' Concerned about social media algorithms that favor rageful engagement over unity, and having done ample work to maintain democracy in Taiwan, she's spreading her pro-democracy ideas globally—even as a self-professed anarchist. Tang's childhood was shaped by a heart condition that made waking up each morning uncertain. She internalized the idea of 'publish, then perish' (a riff on academia's competitive 'publish or perish') early and deeply. A prodigy who started coding at age 8 using pencil and paper because she didn't have a computer, she began recording what she'd learned before going to bed so others could benefit from her work if she never arose. As a young adult at the start of the millennium in Taiwan, she built civic participation platforms and worked on a project that eventually became known as G0v, which created public, open-source alternatives to often-opaque government websites. That community involvement led to participating in the 2014 Sunflower Movement of Taiwanese students demonstrating en masse against a trade deal with China that the students feared threatened their country's democracy. During weeks of students occupying parliament, Tang helped livestream debates from inside, eventually leading the government to express public support for the students' views. Later that year, Tang was asked to become what she terms a 'reverse mentor,' advising a Taiwanese minister on digital affairs, youth engagement, and open government. She eventually became a minister without portfolio in 2016—and the first openly nonbinary cabinet member anywhere—and then the country's first minister of digital affairs in 2022. 'I famously put 'not applicable' in both the party field and the gender field of my HR application,' she says with a laugh. (Tang uses all pronouns and is comfortable with she/her.) This nonpartisan, label-less approach meshes with Tang's efforts toward depolarization. 'It's not about parties, it's not about genders—it is about working with all parties, with all genders,' she says. Because of this, she's willing to collaborate with people from all points on the political spectrum. In the U.S., for example, she's met with both far-right activist Laura Loomer and California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. She previously applied this ethos to her strategy for Taiwan's COVID-19 response, in which she created social messaging designed to appeal across demographics that encouraged people to take key health measures (think: Shiba Inus encouraging social distancing), uniting residents toward a common cause. Her work helped raise trust levels in the country's government from 9% a decade ago to more than 70% by 2020. But she realized it wasn't just Taiwan that could benefit from her work, so she's taken her teachings on the road. So far in 2025, Tang has traveled to around 20 countries. When we speak in April, she's set to visit another 15 cities in the next 55 days. In most every democratic country she's visited, Tang's heard a similar narrative: that people across the political spectrum are 'tired of peak polarization.' Nowhere has this polarization proliferated like it has on social media. To that end, Tang has advised U.S. Congress members on the risks of TikTok—namely, how China could use it against the American people. She helped with the bipartisan efforts to buy the potentially $50 billion social media giant (still underway). But that purchase alone won't stanch what Tang sees as social media's inherently anti-social nature, which she says thrives under opacity. Your feed populates with content the algorithm feeds you based on its popularity and your past views, without any insight into where that content is coming from and how it's viewed within the community where it originated. 'Imagine seeing a post and knowing whether it's broadly accepted across society or only popular because you're in that small echo chamber,' says Tang. 'Making that transparent . . . exposes people to the fact that a claim widely believed in one circle might be highly controversial in another.' In other words, making context transparent better equips people to avoid spreading misinformation. After transparency, the next aspect of creating pro-social media entails highlighting unifying content. 'Bridging content' is that which shows agreements across social, political, cultural, geographical, and other typical demographic divisions on social media. 'Balancing content,' Tang says, presents a fair, summarized representation of opposing views, 'ensuring diverse voices, especially minority ones, are heard in a fair way.' 'As you have seen in Bowling Green, [these ideas] hold real promise to heal the social fabric,' says Tang. 'It was just the old, parasitic AI that amplified engagement through enragement.' After all, 80% or more agreed on 2,370 ideas pitched by their fellow residents in Bowling Green. The next phase is for volunteers to communicate the project's findings to county leadership so the results can help shape the city's development. Tang has since brought this same strategy to California, working with Governor Newsom on 'digital democracy platforms' with the Project Liberty Institute and other partners. The Engaged California project, which launched in February, initially focused on wildfire recovery and prevention but plans to expand to cover all kinds of debated topics in the state and use bridging and balancing to find what Tang calls the 'uncommon ground'—the points people agree on but traditional social media's algorithms often obscure. Ultimately, the aim is to build 'broad coalitions' across political parties. Overall, these experiments, and her conversations with political figures, have given Tang faith in the U.S. 'I don't see signs of the American population . . . succumbing to authoritarianism, either in my conversations with Newsom or with Loomer and her crew,' Tang says. 'The U.S. is this grand experiment . . . on how quickly democracy can adapt [in] different emergencies. So far, it has not let the world down.' With Tang's help, the aim is to continue on that track—but first she says we must rouse ourselves from the 'bad dream' of anti-social media and begin using social media for what Tang refers to as 'broad listening' to one another instead of 'broadcasting.' So far, she's proud of the work she's done. 'Going back to [the idea of] publishing, then perishing,' she says, 'I think I can safely perish, now.'
BBC News
12-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Charing Palace: Listed Kent palace receives £300k Historic England grant
A medieval palace which has housed archbishops and hosted Henry VIII has received a £300,000 grant to help save and repair Palace, near Ashford, has been given the money to fund urgent repairs to the Grade I Listed Great Hall, which dates back to the 14th grant, from Historic England, will be used to support repairs of roof timbers and fund a study to date the age of the timbers and better understand the Maclean, project manager for The Spitalfields Trust who own the site, said she was "delighted" with the grant and "looks forward to the successful completion of the remainder of the project." With parts of the site having roots dating back to the eighth century, Charing Palace provided accommodation for more than 50 Archbishops of Canterbury during the medieval period. In 1520, Henry VIII stayed at the palace with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, while on his way to France for the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting between the Tudor king and King Francis I of later acquired the site after the dissolution of the monasteries and it was later passed into private ownership.A conservation project to save the site began in Cruickshank, architectural historian and chair of the trustees of The Spitalfields Trust, said: "The Archbishop's Palace at Charing in Kent is a marvellous architectural survival of intense historic interest embedded - in almost a secret manner - within one of the county's most attractive villages."The nation can boast few historic buildings comparable to the palace at Charing, and arguably none so bewitchingly beautiful, picturesque - and with such potential for careful repair, conservation and adaptation - all of which can give these ancient structures new lives."
