Showing Pride for Stonewall

In June 2016, President Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park in New York City’s Greenwich Village a national monument, making it the first unit to recognize LGBT history.

NPCA and its many national and local partners worked for two years to build broad support to secure a national park designation for Stonewall. Together we garnered more than 26,000 signatures on our petition.

Stonewall is recognized as the birthplace of the modern LGBT civil rights movement. In response to police raids targeting the LGBT community in the summer of 1969, a weeklong uprising took place in and around the streets surrounding the Stonewall Inn bar and Christopher Park, widely considered to be among the most important events in LGBT history. These demonstrations helped set the stage for the progress that has since been made toward LGBT equality and the larger push for human rights and civil rights in the United States.

NPCA’s efforts to help the Park Service best interpret the story at Stonewall continues to this day, as does our work to make the park system inclusive and representative of all. Just this summer, we helped bring more than 300 school students to Stonewall to experience this piece of history, cultivating awareness and empathy. We also foster conversation and action through our annual participation in the Pride Month activities in New York.

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