Penn School - Reconstruction Era National Monument Act

Summary: Penn School - Reconstruction Era National Monument Act This bill establishes the Penn School - Reconstruction Era National Monument in South Carolina, which shall become a unit of the National Park System (NPS) when the Department of the Interior has:   acquired sufficient land or an interest in land within the monument's boundary to constitute a manageable unit, and  entered into a written agreement with Penn Community Services, Inc. (known as Penn Center) pursuant to this bill.   The bill declares that the monument's boundaries shall be the same as those of the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District. Interior may enter into an agreement with Penn Center:  regarding the transfer of land or interests in land; and  delineating the respective roles and responsibilities of the National Park Service and Penn Center in the operation, maintenance, and interpretation of the monument.   Interior may acquire by donation, purchase from a willing seller, or exchange lands or interests in land within the monument's boundary and within its vicinity. 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Penn School - Reconstruction Era 
National Monument Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Penn Center on St. Helena Island in South Carolina is a 
        unique historical and cultural resource for the understanding 
        and interpretation of the Reconstruction era.
            (2) Penn Center is the site of Penn School, founded in 1862 
        by Laura M. Towne and Ellen Murray, missionaries from 
        Pennsylvania. It was one of the first schools in the South for 
        formerly enslaved African Americans. The school held classes at 
        Oaks Plantation and Brick Church on St. Helena before moving to 
        its permanent location.
            (3) In 1864, with assistance from the Freedman's Aid 
        Society of Pennsylvania, Penn School purchased 50 acres of land 
        across from Brick Church from Hastings Gantt and erected a 
        schoolhouse shipped from Philadelphia as its first building. 
        Penn School opened in its permanent location in January 1865, 
        and the campus has continuously operated in various forms to 
        the present day.
            (4) At its founding, Penn School was a central component of 
        the Port Royal Experiment, the effort begun by the Lincoln 
        Administration during the Civil War to help former slaves in 
        the Sea Islands of the South Carolina Lowcountry become self-
        sufficient.
            (5) Penn School lasted much longer than the Port Royal 
        Experiment, thriving for the duration of the Civil War and 
        through the Reconstruction era, helping thousands transition to 
        freedom.
            (6) After the Civil War ended, Laura Towne advocated for 
        public funding of schools for African Americans in the Sea 
        Islands, knowing that the philanthropic missionary 
        organizations in Pennsylvania which supported Penn School could 
        not meet the need.
            (7) In 1868, Robert Smalls, whose daughter attended Penn 
        School during the Civil War, won passage of a provision at the 
        South Carolina constitutional convention requiring compulsory 
        education for all children ages seven to fourteen that would be 
        financially supported by the government and free of charge to 
        attend.
            (8) The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction in the 
        South, withdrawing Federal military protection of African 
        Americans' rights. The effects on education of African 
        Americans were immediate. South Carolina quickly stripped 
        communities of their power to democratically elect school board 
        members. By June 1877, the people of St. Helena were forbidden 
        to raise money for educational purposes, effectively ending 
        their nascent public school system.
            (9) Penn School, privately funded by Northern charities, 
        continued, and as Reconstruction ended and the Jim Crow era 
        took hold, Penn School became a sanctuary for former slaves and 
        their descendants, developing a class of rural Black landowners 
        who built communities and preserved African traditions. This 
        adaptation of old traditions to a new land forged a unique 
        culture, which would become known as Gullah.
            (10) In 1901, upon the death of co-founder Laura Towne, who 
        had led the school for 40 years, the Penn School reorganized as 
        the Penn Normal, Agricultural and Industrial School. Led by new 
        chairman, Horace Burke Frissell, then President of Hampton 
        Institute, it adopted the industrial arts curriculum taught at 
        Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes.
            (11) By 1948, Beaufort County was operating public schools 
        on St. Helena and the other sea islands. Penn Normal, 
        Agricultural and Industrial School ended its academic mission 
        and reorganized as Penn Community Services, Inc. (known as Penn 
        Center), dedicated to civil rights and social justice, the 
        preservation of Gullah history and culture, and providing 
        critical services and resources to the community on St. Helena.
            (12) In the 1950s and 60s, Penn Center was one of the few 
        places in the South that Whites and Blacks could gather 
        together, and as a result many social and political 
        organizations used the campus to plan activities as part of the 
        Civil Rights Movement.
            (13) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., used Penn Center for 
        Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff retreats and to 
        plan other activities. Much of SCLC's planning for the great 
        ``March on Washington'' and the ``Poor People's Campaign'' took 
        place at Penn Center as did several of King's iconic speeches.
            (14) The Penn Center campus was designated a National 
        Historic Landmark District by the Secretary of the Interior in 
        1974.
            (15) Penn Center began to offer legal services, 
        particularly those involving heirs' property issues, to 
        preserve African-American family land ownership in St. Helena 
        and the surrounding area where property had passed from 
        generation to generation without the benefit of wills or estate 
        plans as a result of Blacks' lack of access to the legal 
        system.
            (16) In 2000, Congress instructed the National Park Service 
        to execute the Low Country Gullah Culture Special Resource 
        Study, which was completed in 2005. Building on those findings, 
        in 2006 Congress authorized the Gullah/Geechee Cultural 
        Heritage Corridor, dedicating an entity to the preservation and 
        interpretation of African-American culture on the Southeast 
        coast, known as Gullah in North Carolina and South Carolina and 
        Geechee in Georgia and Florida. Penn Center is at the heart of 
        this corridor, helping preserve Gullah culture on St. Helena 
        and throughout the Sea Islands.
            (17) The National Park Service's Special Resource Study 
        stated that, ``Penn School is one of the most historically 
        significant educational and cultural institutions in the United 
        States.''.
            (18) No unit of the National Park Service is dedicated to 
        the preservation and interpretation of the Reconstruction Era, 
        and establishing such a unit at Penn Center will be an 
        important step in ensuring that the National Park Service 
        offers a complete version of American history.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF PENN SCHOOL - RECONSTRUCTION ERA NATIONAL 
              MONUMENT.

    (a) Establishment.--There is hereby established Penn School - 
Reconstruction Era National Monument in the State of South Carolina, 
which shall become a unit of the National Park System when the 
Secretary has--
            (1) acquired sufficient land or an interest in land within 
        the boundary of the National Monument to constitute a 
        manageable unit, as determined by the Secretary; and
            (2) entered into a written agreement with Penn Center, 
        under subsection (d).
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of the National Monument are--
            (1) preserving and interpreting for the benefit of future 
        generations the significant educational, social, and cultural 
        history in the National Monument and providing a unit of the 
        National Park Service dedicated to the history of the 
        Reconstruction Era;
            (2) coordinating preservation, protection, and 
        interpretation efforts by Federal, State, and local 
        governmental entities, and private and nonprofit organizations; 
        and
            (3) coordinating appropriate management options needed to 
        ensure the protection, preservation, and interpretation of the 
        many significant aspects of the National Monument.
    (c) Boundaries.--The boundaries of the National Monument are the 
same as the boundaries of the Penn Center National Historic Landmark 
District as depicted on the map.
    (d) Agreement.--The Secretary is authorized to enter into an 
agreement with Penn Center--
            (1) regarding the transfer of land or interests in land; 
        and
            (2) delineating the respective roles and responsibilities 
        of the National Park Service and Penn Center in the operation, 
        maintenance, and interpretation of the National Monument.
    (e) Publication of Notice.--Not later than 60 days after the date 
on which the conditions in subsection (a) are satisfied, the Secretary 
shall publish in the Federal Register notice of the establishment of 
the National Monument as a unit of the National Park System.
    (f) Land Acquisition.--The Secretary may acquire by donation, 
purchase with donated or appropriated funds from a willing seller, or 
exchange--
            (1) lands or interests in land within the boundary of the 
        National Monument; and
            (2) lands or interests in land in the vicinity of the 
        National Monument, as determined by the Secretary.

SEC. 4. ADMINISTRATION.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary shall administer the National 
Monument in accordance with--
            (1) this Act; and
            (2) the laws generally applicable to units of the National 
        Park System, including--
                    (A) section 100101(a), chapter 1003, and sections 
                100751(a), 100752, 100753, and 102101 of title 54, 
                United States Code; and
                    (B) chapter 3201 of title 54, United States Code.
    (b) Cooperative Agreements.--The Secretary may enter into 
cooperative agreements with other public and nonpublic parties that 
provide for--
            (1) National Park Service operation and maintenance of the 
        national historic park;
            (2) collaboration and cooperation by the National Park 
        Service and Penn Center on management and interpretation of the 
        National Monument; and
            (3) the State or other public and nonpublic parties, under 
        which the Secretary may identify, interpret, and provide 
        assistance for the preservation of non-Federal properties 
        within and adjacent to the National Monument, including 
        providing for placement of directional and interpretive 
        signage, exhibits, and technology-based interpretive devices.
    (c) Management Plan.--Not later than 3 fiscal years after the date 
on which funds are first made available to carry out this Act, the 
Secretary shall complete a general management plan for the National 
Monument in accordance with--
            (1) section 100502 of title 54, United States Code; and
            (2) any other applicable laws.
    (d) Legal Description and Map.--The Secretary shall prepare a legal 
description of the land and interests in land designated as the 
National Monument. The legal description and map prepared pursuant to 
this subsection shall be on file and available for public inspection in 
the appropriate offices.

SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO CARRY OUT FEDERAL LAW.

    Nothing in this Act modifies any authority of the United States to 
carry out Federal laws on Federal land located within the National 
Monument.

SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Interior.
            (2) Map.--Except for the purposes of section 4(d), the term 
        ``map'' means the map titled ``Penn Center Historic District'' 
        and received on August 22, 1974, by the Department of the 
        Interior, National Register, as part of the National Register 
        Nomination Form (Form 10-300) for the Penn Center Historic 
        District.
            (3) National monument.--The term ``National Monument'' 
        means the Penn School - Reconstruction Era National Monument 
        pursuant to this Act.
            (4) Penn center.--The term ``Penn Center'' means Penn 
        Community Services, Inc., a South Carolina corporation 
        recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code 
        of 1986.