Abstract

Data indicates that the demographics of national park visitors in the United States are not representative of the coun- try’s. Specifically, studies suggest that national park visitors are overwhelmingly white and that African Americans are underrepresented in national parks by at least five percentage points. National Park Service (NPS) administrators have articulated that the current makeup of its visitors is both philosophically and practically problematic. This paper evaluates the United States government’s, and the NPS’ more specifically, role in making and maintaining the national parks, some of the U.S.' finest outdoor spaces, as “white spaces.” In order to do so, it draws on evidence from archived personal correspondence between NPS administrators, published and unpublished interviews with NPS administra- tors and employees, newspaper articles, travel guides and various secondary sources. While other authors have shown that the American outdoors was conceived as a white space or examined the relationship between the NPS and African Americans, few have comprehensively studied the relationship between race, the U.S.' outdoors and the National Park System and Service. This paper argues that, because the NPS does not distinguish between disparities between white and African American representation in national parks and levels of engagement with the entire National Park System, its efforts cannot adequately address both the philosophical and practical problems its homogenous constituency presents. Therefore, even if the NPS’ tactics were to succeed in garnering African Americans’ support for the service its efforts would not necessarily have helped to fully integrate key components of the American outdoors.