Beginning in the 1930s, the state park movement sought to expand public access to scenic places. But under severe Jim Crow restrictions in the South, entrance to the new facilities was routinely and officially denied to African Americans, and pressure to create “separate but equal” facilities mounted. Landscapes of Exclusion presents the first-ever study of segregation in southern state parks, underscoring the profound disparity that persisted for decades in the Jim Crow South.
WILLIAM E. O'BRIEN is associate professor of environmental studies at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University and a 2014 recipient of the University Award for Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching. His work on environment and race has appeared in journals including Historical Geography; Geographical Review; Human Ecology; Journal of Geography; and Ethics, Place and Environment.