Tag: women's history

Celebrating Women’s History Month

Published on by JNPALeave a comment

Throughout history, women have been instrumental in every facet of human endeavor.  Whether they have been renowned trailblazers or unsung heroines working behind the scenes, women have helped guide the course of American history and they continue to shape our future.

That’s why JNPA is commemorating Women’s History Month.  In the words of a White House proclamation, the month of March is an opportunity to “celebrate the countless women who have fought tirelessly and courageously for equality, justice, and opportunity in our Nation.  We also reaffirm our commitment to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls in the United States and around the world.”

In honor of Women’s History Month, JNPA is proud to offer a number of books that shine a light on examples of women’s contributions to our national heritage, in both civil rights and voting rights:

Warriors Don’t Cry is a first-person account of Melba Pattillo Beals, one of nine African American teenagers who helped integrate Little Rock’s Central High School in the 1950s.  This searing account of her junior year at Central High highlights Beals’ bravery in the face of racist warnings, attacks, and ultimately, death threats.

The Long Shadow of Little Rock is a riveting memoir by Daisy Bates, one of the Little Rock Nine.  As a later civil rights activist, journalist, and lecturer, Bates provides a riveting and very personal account of America’s fraught school desegregation movement. 

An iconic 1957 image of a white girl screaming at an African American student highlights the anguish of America’s struggle to desegregate schools.  Elizabeth and Hazel recounts the intersecting lives of those two girls – Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery – whose very different lives unexpectedly braided together.

Women of the Suffrage Movement recounts the decades-long struggle of American women to secure the right to vote, from the famous Seneca Falls meeting in 1848 to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

The women’s suffrage movement of the 1800s and 1900s was about more than just the right to vote.  It encompassed the most fundamental rights of citizenship: the right to receive fair wages, to hold property, to sign contracts, and to file suit in court.  Sisters examines the lives of America’s leading suffragists and how their efforts resulted in far-reaching changes to the nation’s laws.

The Golden Lane is the story of how women in Missouri gained the vote and changed the state’s history.

How Many National Park Sites Have YOU Visited?

Published on by JNPALeave a comment

The National Park Service system currently includes 423 sites throughout the United States and its territories.  These range from national monuments and battlefields to national historic sites and recreation areas to national rivers and seashores. 

Don’t feel bad if you haven’t visited the majority of these places (most of us haven’t!). But luckily, National Park Week is just around the corner – a perfect time to add to your NPS “life list.”

National Park Week is an annual celebration jointly hosted by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation to encourage everyone to discover our nation’s diverse historic, natural, and cultural treasures.  This year, the week runs from April 16 through 24.  Parks across the country will host a variety of special programs, events, and digital experiences, including National Junior Ranger Day for kids on Saturday April 23.  You can find out more about programs and themes you might be interested in by going here.  

Another bonus for park visitors during National Park Week – entrance fees are waived at all parks on Saturday April 16.  (Other 2022 free fee days can be found here).  Luckily, there are never entry fees at JNPA’s partner parks but each of them would be glad to see you in April, or any time!

If you’re planning to visit any of the 63 parks that have “national park” in their name, you’ll want a copy of National Geographic’s national park guide as well as the Passport to Your National Parks, which not only contains park information but allows you to collect the passport stamps from every park you visit. 

A Mighty Woman of the Mighty River

Published on by JNPALeave a comment

In honor of National Equal Pay Day, we are taking a look at the life of an influential woman in the history of JNPA partner park Mississippi National River and Recreation Area who never received equal pay nor recognition in her lifetime, Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom.

Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom and Jacob Fahlstrom. Credit: Historic Fort Snelling

Marguerite was born in 1797 in Duluth, Minnesota. Her father, Pierre Bonga, was the son of former slaves and a successful fur trader. Her mother, Ogibwayquay, was an Ojibwe woman. Her lineage was notable in that the slave trade was very much alive at the time, and while it was somewhat common for fur traders to marry Ojibwe women to establish trading partnerships, these typically involved white traders. Two of Marguerite’s brothers, Stephen and George, went on to become well-known fur traders in their own right.

Stephen Bonga (left) and George Bonga (right)

Today, Marguerite is best known for being the wife of Jacob Fahlstrom, a Swedish immigrant known as the “first Swede of Minnesota” who helped establish the Swedish community of Minnesota. But Marguerite’s role has largely been forgotten. As Haddy Bayo, National Park Ranger at Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, notes in Women of the Mississippi: Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom, “It’s unlikely that Fahlstrom would have risen to the social position, which has so captured historians and the public, without Bonga’s contribution.”

Marguerite provided Jacob with critical knowledge and social connections in order to establish trade with the native Ojibwe community. Additionally, traders’ wives did not stay home to tend the house and children like other women of the time. Instead, they were travel partners who fully participated in the work. Later, as a minister’s wife, Marguerite was also expected to assist with her husband’s missionary work in addition to raising the couple’s 10 children!

Despite her influential role in early Minnesota history, she has largely been forgotten, and very few photographs of her exist. Today, we celebrate Marguerite and all women who never received the recognition they so deserved in their lifetime.

You can learn more about Marguerite and other influential women in the history of Mississippi National River and Recreation Area by exploring Women of the Mississippi River, an NPS interactive map that highlights the narratives of women who shaped the history of the Twin Cities and the greater American Midwest.