Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

A volunteer effort in Colorado has brought into focus the plight of Japanese Americans during World War II. Granada High School principal John Hopper was a social studies teacher in 1993 when he and his students embarked on a mission to preserve and interpret the remains of the Granada Relocation Center, better known as Amache. The National Historic Landmark is the most intact of the 10 camps for the incarceration of Japanese Americans. More than 7,000 Japanese, mostly American citizens, were imprisoned there from 1942 to 1945.

April is National Volunteer Month, celebrating those who give of themselves by volunteering their time, energy, and skills to serving our communities and helping others. During this month and all year long, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation salutes the people and organizations who volunteer to support the cause of historic preservation.

By Katherine Slick, historic preservation consultant, ACHP Foundation President

It may be hard to imagine in an election year with a record number of women running for local, state, and national offices that 170 years ago women did not have the right to vote. In July 1848, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and a small group of women launched a peaceful revolution that has changed the world–the Women’s Rights Movement. At a convention in Seneca Falls, New York, 68 women and 32 men signed a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions that included women’s suffrage. However, that same year in a narrowly defeated bill, the Washington Territorial legislators denied women the right to cast a ballot.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has approved a policy statement for federal, state, and local government entities facing decisions about the management or disposition of controversial commemorative works, such as memorials, statues, markers, or other landscape features honoring divisive historical figures or events.

The ACHP voted at its March 22 business meeting in Washington, D.C. to approve the policy statement to assist these entities in achieving a balance between the past, present, and future in the case of these commemorative works. This includes federal agencies complying with the review requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Take a trip through New York to sites of famous abolitionist Harriet Tubman and learn about her later years as an activist for women’s issues.