Unexpectedly, I now have 364 parks completed. I did not realize that the Reconstruction Era park was open on the Sea Islands near Beaufort, SC. The park has three components, a downtown visitor center in an old fire station, the heart of the park, an educational facility in a complex called Penn School and a church built by enslaved people and after 1861 it is where they worshiped and learned. Reconstruction was an uneven process at best but here it worked as well as anywhere. The area was captured by the North early in the war and all the plantation owners had fled leaving the enslaved population and many more who fled to this community. .The north paid wages to them and eventually sold the land for back taxes to those who were now earning funds. Three women came from the north to set up schools and the building that we toured was a part of that school. Lots of current skills as we as academic classes were conducted. Many of the families that bought land in the mid-1860’s are still owned by their descendants. The small house in the photos was built as a retreat for Martin Luther King, Jr but he was killed before he could use it. It is now an artist and writers retreat house. More info here: https://www.nps.gov/reer/index.htm
