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The park is the site of famed educator, orator, and presidential advisor,
Booker T. Washington's birth, early life, and emancipation. Washington's
ideas about education, race, and labor were shaped on this tobacco plantation.
The park is one of the few places where one can see how slavery and the
plantation system worked on a smaller scale. It provides a focal point for
discussion about one of the most powerful African Americans in history and
the evolving context of race in American society. Interpretive programs
are available daily, weather-permitting. A quarterly calendar of events
is available upon request. The park's visitor center contains exhibits on
Washington's life and legacy and offers an audio-visual program interpreting
his career and accomplishments.
The monument is located near the regional recreation area of Smith Mountain
Lake in Franklin County, Virginia. Smith Mountain Lake is a rapidly growing
area in Southwest Virginia that has had a notable increase in population
and development in the last ten years. With these new developments in residence,
businesses, and traffic, the proximity of the monument to Smith Mountain
Lake poses a real threat to the character and pastoral nature of the monument.
The commercial and residential development are already visible from the
park. "Acquisition of this parcel would provide the necessary buffer
between this development and the park so that visitors will be able to experience
the area as it was during Booker T. Washington's life," according to
Denis Galvin, Deputy Director of the National Park Service.
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