National Historic Landmarks Program

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893) was a writer, newspaper editor, lawyer, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist. Her Washington, DC home became a in 1976.

In 1848, the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass asked in his newspaper, The North Star, how the movement for Black people’s liberation could be advanced most effectively. Shadd wrote in to Douglass’ paper say that the movement needed to “do more and talk less,” arguing that words without action were pointless.

Shadd lived by that creed. In 1851, she moved to Canada to open a school for Black children who had escaped slavery in the United States. She also started her own newspaper, the Provincial Freeman, becoming the first Black woman in North America to operate a paper. The Provincial Freeman’s motto was “Self-reliance is the true road to independence.” The paper published antislavery literature and news stories about events in the United States and in Canada.

When the Civil War broke out, Shadd Cary moved back to the United States. She worked as a military recruiter, encouraging Black men in the north to fight in the US military. After the war, she earned a legal education at Howard University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Washington, DC and continued to defend people’s right to equal treatment under the law.



📷1: The exterior of the Mary Ann Shadd Cary House. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
📷2: Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
📷3: Masthead of Shadd Cary’s paper, the Provincial Freeman. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

The Sitka Naval Operating Base and US Army Coastal Defenses was originally designated as an NHL in 1986. Established as an Advanced Seaplane Base in 1937, it was the navy’s first air station in Alaska, playing a key role in the defense of America during World War II.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Sitka was the only major military base in Alaska. After Pearl Harbor, PBY aircraft from Sitka patrolled southeast Alaska and far into the Gulf of Alaska. The US Army Coastal Defenses, including the causeway connecting the islands, were built west of Japonski Island to protect the air base. The Sitka base supported operations throughout most of the war but was decommissioned in 1944 following the successful Aleutian Islands Campaign. Today, many of the WWII structures are used and maintained by multiple owners.

The updated NHL nomination provides more information about the important role that the naval base and coastal defenses played in protecting Alaska during World War II, and how the surviving elements contribute to our understanding of this history.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place!



📷1: Sitka Naval Operating Base and US Army Coastal Defenses aerial photo. NPS Photo, May 2022.
📷2: Married Officers’ Housing on the Sitka Naval Operating Base. NPS Photo, May 2022.
📷3: The US Army Coastal Defenses being constructed on Nevski Island, circa 1942. John W. Failor Collection, Sitka History Museum.
📷4: Battery Emplacement No. 292 Bunker, Command Post on Makhnati Island. Part of the US Army Coastal Defenses section of the NHL. NPS Photo, May 2022.

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

The Charleston Cigar Factory in Charleston, SC, identified through the Labor History in the United States NHL theme study (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/americans-at-work.htm), is nationally significant for its association with a strike led by African American women, October 1945-April 1946. Workers in the Charleston Cigar Factory went on strike to protest discrimination in pay, working conditions, and treatment on the job. The strike is emblematic of the post-World War II national strike wave - the largest in the history of the U.S. labor movement - and demonstrates the intersection between labor and civil rights activism that would shape both movements during the mid-20th century.

Workers who participated in the strike regularly sang “We Will Overcome,” a modified version of the gospel song “I’ll Overcome Someday.” They introduced the song at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, TN, an in*******al training facility for social activists, where it was subsequently adapted into the civil rights protest anthem “We Shall Overcome.”

After visiting Highlander and hearing the song for the first time, Martin Luther King, Jr. remarked, “There’s something about that song that haunts you.”

The former factory is currently used as a commercial and educational facility. Although it has undergone several alterations, the main mill building remains intact, and the current property owners have restored historical features.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.



📷1: Charleston Cigar Factory Building, East (front) Facade. Rachel Donaldson, 2021.
📷2: Workers outside of the Cigar Factory, 1940s. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.
📷3: Interior of Main Mill. Wecco Development, LLC., 2015.
📷4: Second floor of the former Picker House. Wecco Development, LLC., 2015.