[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 138 (Thursday, July 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58404-58405]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-15806]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-OIA-DTS-37984; PPWODIREI0--PIN00IO15.XI0000]


U.S. Nomination to the World Heritage List: U.S. Civil Rights 
Movement Sites

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the decision to request that the Georgia 
State University's World Heritage Initiative prepare a draft nomination 
of U.S. Civil Rights Sites for inclusion on the United Nations 
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World 
Heritage List. The decision is the result of consultation with the 
Federal Interagency Panel for World Heritage and the review of public 
comments submitted in response to an earlier notice. This notice 
complies with applicable World Heritage Program regulations.

ADDRESSES: To request paper copies of documents discussed in this 
notice, contact April Brooks, Office of International Affairs, National 
Park Service, 1849 C St. NW, Room 2415, Washington, DC 20240, (202) 
354-1808, or send electronic mail (Email) to: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan Putnam, 202-354-1809. 
Information on the U.S. World Heritage program can be found at:https://www.nps.gov/subjects/internationalcooperation/worldheritage.htm.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The World Heritage List is an international list of cultural and 
natural properties nominated by the signatories to the World Heritage 
Convention (1972). The United States was the prime architect of the 
Convention, an international treaty for preservation of natural and 
cultural heritage sites of global significance. The World Heritage 
Committee, composed of representatives of 21 nations periodically 
elected as the governing body of the World Heritage Convention, makes 
the final decisions on which nominations to accept on the World 
Heritage List. There are 1,199 sites in 168 countries. Currently there 
are 25 World Heritage Sites in the United States. U.S. participation 
and the roles of the Department of the Interior (Department) and the 
National Park Service (NPS) are authorized by Title IV of the Historic 
Preservation Act Amendments of 1980 and conducted in accordance with 36 
CFR part 73--World Heritage Convention. Each State Party to the 
Convention maintains a Tentative List, periodically updated, of 
properties that are considered suitable for nomination. Only properties 
on the Tentative List are eligible to officially prepare nominations 
that the Department may consider for submission. An entry for U.S. 
Civil Rights Sites, including three churches in Alabama, has included 
on the U.S. Tentative List since 2008. Neither inclusion in the list 
nor inscription as a World Heritage Site imposes legal restrictions on 
owners or neighbors of sites, nor does it give the United Nations any 
management authority or ownership rights in U.S. World Heritage Sites, 
which continue to be subject only to U.S. law.
    The Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks (Assistant 
Secretary) initiates the process to nominate U.S. sites to the World 
Heritage List by publishing a notice in the Federal Register seeking 
public comment on which properties on the U.S. Tentative List should be 
nominated next by the United States. The first notice (88 FR 37270, as 
required by 36 CFR 73.7(c) was published on June 7, 2023. Following the 
publication of the first notice, the Assistant Secretary consults the 
Federal Interagency Panel for World Heritage to review the public 
comments submitted and make a recommendation. If the Panel recommends 
that a property, or properties, be nominated and the recommendation is 
accepted by the Assistant Secretary, a second notice is issued. The 
Assistant Secretary authorized a draft nomination for the Okefenokee 
National Wildlife Refuge in 2023 and the U.S. Civil Rights Sites is the 
second nomination authorized (authorization was delayed pending 
completion of an assessment of the proposed nomination by the 
International Council on Monuments and Sites, see below). This is the 
second notice as required by 36 CFR 73.7(f) on the proposed nomination. 
The Panel assists the Department in implementing the Convention by 
making recommendations on U.S. World Heritage policy, procedures, and 
nominations. The Panel is chaired by the Assistant Secretary.

Decision To Request the Preparation of a New U.S. World Heritage 
Nomination

    The Department received over 10,300 comments in response to the 
first notice, many of them regarding both the Okefenokee National 
Wildlife Refuge and the U.S. Civil Rights Sites, all of which were 
expressions of support from the property owners, elected 
representatives at local, state, and Federal levels, individuals, 
institutions, and museums. There were no comments against nominating 
any property, including this nomination.
    The Department considered all comments received as well as the 
advice of the Federal Interagency Panel for World Heritage.
    The Department has selected the U.S. Civil Rights Sites as a 
proposed U.S. serial nomination to the World Heritage List. With the 
assistance of the Department, including the completion of appropriate 
consultation with Native American Tribal governments, the Georgia State 
University World Heritage Initiative, along with supporting 
organizations and property owners, is encouraged to develop a complete 
nomination, in accordance with 36 CFR part 73 and the nomination format 
required by the World Heritage Committee.
    The U.S. Civil Rights Sites nomination includes the three churches 
in Alabama that were included in the Tentative List in 2008: Dexter 
Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama; Bethel 
Baptist

[[Page 58405]]

Church, Birmingham, Alabama; and, 16th Street Baptist Church, 
Birmingham, Alabama. Additional properties also authorized to be part 
of the nomination include: Robert Russa Moton High School/Museum, 
Farmville, Virginia; Monroe Elementary School, Topeka, Kansas (part of 
Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park); Little Rock 
Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas (Little Rock Central High 
School National Historic Site); Ebenezer Baptist Church (Heritage 
Sanctuary), Atlanta, Georgia (part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. 
National Historical Park); Greyhound Bus Terminal, Anniston, Alabama 
(part of Freedom Riders National Monument); Medgar and Myrlie Evers 
Home, Jackson, Mississippi (Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National 
Monument); Lincoln Memorial and Grounds, Washington, District of 
Columbia (part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks); Edmund Pettus 
Bridge, Selma, Alabama, (part of Selma to Montgomery National 
Historical Trail).
    The U.S. Civil Rights Sites proposal was evaluated on a preliminary 
basis by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 
2023 which provided an assessment report. The assessment was based on a 
visit by international experts to most of the proposed properties and 
desk reviews by experts of materials developed by Georgia State 
University. When the Federal Interagency Panel met to consider the 
proposal it recommended authorization of a draft nomination with the 
stipulation that the ICOMOS recommendations on the selection of 
properties and other matters be sufficiently addressed as the 
nomination is developed. Only eight of the ten additional properties 
are currently eligible for nomination. Two additional properties in the 
Georgia State proposal are not included in the authorization at this 
time. The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee and the Woolworth's 
store in Greensboro, North Carolina are not currently National Historic 
Landmarks, but could be added to the nomination if they obtain the 
necessary designation of national significance. In the course of 
developing the nomination, a small number of additional properties 
could be added to respond to the ICOMOS recommendations.
    The U.S. Civil Rights Sites are the locations of iconic events in 
the mid-20th century civil rights movement for African Americans in the 
United States of America. This movement both drew from and had a 
profound influence on human rights movements elsewhere in the world, 
particularly insofar as they embody techniques of non-violent social 
change hitherto most powerfully expressed by Mahatma Gandhi. The 
current components in the draft nomination collectively played a 
preeminent role in the movement and will be nominated under criterion 
vi for association with events and ideas of outstanding universal 
value. Additional components will be considered for inclusion in 
keeping with the recommendations of ICOMOS.

Next Steps

    A draft World Heritage nomination for U.S. Civil Rights Sites may 
now be prepared, in consultation with the National Park Service's 
Office of International Affairs. The NPS will coordinate the review and 
evaluation of the draft nomination to ensure it meets the requirements 
of 36 CFR part 73 and will cooperate with the Georgia State University 
World Heritage Initiative, the property owners, and other partners. 
Following NPS review of a complete draft nomination, the Department may 
submit it to the World Heritage Centre for technical review by 
September 30 of any year. The Centre will then provide comments by 
November 15 of that year. The Federal Interagency Panel for World 
Heritage will review a draft nomination following receipt of the 
Centre's comments and recommend to the Department whether the 
nomination should be formally submitted for consideration by the World 
Heritage Committee. Submittal to the World Heritage Centre by the 
Department through the Department of State can be made by February 1 of 
any year (prior to 2026, at which time a new procedure of the World 
Heritage Committee will take effect); the World Heritage Committee 
would then consider the nomination at its annual meeting in the summer 
of the following year, after an evaluation by ICOMOS, which is an 
official Advisory Body to the Committee.
    Authority: 54 U.S.C. 307101; 36 CFR part 73.

Shannon A. Estenoz,
Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.
[FR Doc. 2024-15806 Filed 7-17-24; 8:45 am]
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