National Park grants honor sites significant to Chinese Americans and Black communities in Washington

The National Park Service has awarded two grants totalling $100,000 to identify and preserve locations of historic significance for the Chinese American and Black communities in Washington state.

One of the $50,000 grants is for the state’s Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Allyson Brooks, who heads the office, said she plans to use the funds to locate places of historic significance to the Chinese American community. She said the department has previously won Park Service grants to identify places of historical significance to the Latino, Filipino and Black communities in Washington.

“And this final round, we applied to do Chinese American exclusion history, particularly focused on archaeological sites, and what archaeological sites say about the Chinese American exclusion period,” Brooks said.

She plans to use the grant money to locate archaeological sites associated with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The law aimed to curb immigration for people with Chinese heritage. And it lasted for decades.

The City of Tacoma will get the other $50,000 grant. The money will help identify historic sites linked to Tacoma’s Black heritage.

Brooks said the grants provide an opportunity for her agency to connect with groups that she often hasn’t had the opportunity to work with or help.

“It means that we bring attention to places that have not been historically seen as culturally and historically significant,” she said. “It means that we get to partner with communities that we have not formally partnered with.”