I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5358 
To establish Penn School – Reconstruction Era National Monument in the 
State of South Carolina as a unit of the National Park System, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 26, 2016 
Mr. CLYBURN (for himself and Mr. SANFORD) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To establish Penn School – Reconstruction Era National 
Monument in the State of South Carolina as a unit 
of the National Park System, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Penn School – Recon-
struction 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 
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for the understanding and interpretation of the Re-
construction 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 Freed-
man’s Aid Society of Pennsylvania, Penn School 
purchased 50 acres of land across from Brick 
Church from Hastings Gantt and erected a school-
house shipped from Philadelphia as its first building. 
Penn School opened in its permanent location in 
January 1865, and the campus has continuously op-
erated 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-suffi-
cient. 
(5) Penn School lasted much longer than the 
Port Royal Experiment, thriving for the duration of 
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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 phil-
anthropic missionary organizations in Pennsylvania 
which supported Penn School could not meet the 
need. 
(7) In 1868, Robert Smalls, whose daughter at-
tended Penn School during the Civil War, won pas-
sage of a provision at the South Carolina constitu-
tional convention requiring compulsory education for 
all children ages seven to fourteen that would be fi-
nancially supported by the government and free of 
charge to attend. 
(8) The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruc-
tion in the South, withdrawing Federal military pro-
tection 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 forbid-
den to raise money for educational purposes, effec-
tively ending their nascent public school system. 
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(9) Penn School, privately funded by Northern 
charities, continued, and as Reconstruction ended 
and the Jim Crow era took hold, Penn School be-
came a sanctuary for former slaves and their de-
scendants, developing a class of rural Black land-
owners 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 Insti-
tutes. 
(11) By 1948, Beaufort County was operating 
public schools on St. Helena and the other sea is-
lands. 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 
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providing critical services and resources to the com-
munity 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 Con-
ference 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 Sec-
retary 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. 
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(16) In 2000, Congress instructed the National 
Park Service to execute the Low Country Gullah 
Culture Special Resource Study, which was com-
pleted in 2005. Building on those findings, in 2006 
Congress authorized the Gullah/Geechee Cultural 
Heritage Corridor, dedicating an entity to the pres-
ervation and interpretation of African-American cul-
ture 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 Re-
source 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 ensur-
ing that the National Park Service offers a complete 
version of American history. 
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SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF PENN SCHOOL – RECONSTRUC-
TION 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 Monu-
ment are— 
(1) preserving and interpreting for the benefit 
of future generations the significant educational, so-
cial, 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 or-
ganizations; and 
(3) coordinating appropriate management op-
tions needed to ensure the protection, preservation, 
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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 respon-
sibilities of the National Park Service and Penn 
Center in the operation, maintenance, and interpre-
tation 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 Monu-
ment 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 bound-
ary of the National Monument; and 
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(2) lands or interests in land in the vicinity of 
the National Monument, as determined by the Sec-
retary. 
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 main-
tenance of the national historic park; 
(2) collaboration and cooperation by the Na-
tional Park Service and Penn Center on manage-
ment and interpretation of the National Monument; 
and 
(3) the State or other public and nonpublic par-
ties, under which the Secretary may identify, inter-
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pret, and provide assistance for the preservation of 
non-Federal properties within and adjacent to the 
National Monument, including providing for place-
ment of directional and interpretive signage, exhib-
its, and technology-based interpretive devices. 
(c) MANAGEMENT PLAN.—Not later than 3 fiscal 
years after the date on which funds are first made avail-
able 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: 
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(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, Na-
tional Register, as part of the National Register 
Nomination Form (Form 10–300) for the Penn 
Center Historic District. 
(3) NATIONAL
MONUMENT.—The term ‘‘Na-
tional Monument’’ means the Penn School – Recon-
struction 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. 
Æ 
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