Erin Devlin
Associate Professor of History and American Studies | University of Mary Washington
Fredericksburg, VA, UNITED STATES
Dr. Devlin focuses on race, public memory, and social justice
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Biography
Erin Krutko Devlin's research focuses on race, public memory, and social justice, and she offers courses in both history and American studies. Her book "Remember Little Rock" was published by the University of Massachusetts Press as part of its Public History in Historical Perspective series in 2017. She is currently working on a historic resource study with the National Park Service focused on segregation and African-American visitation in Virginia’s national parks.
Areas of Expertise (5)
American Studies
Social Justice
Race
Public Memory
American History
Education (1)
College of William and Mary: Ph.D., American Studies
Links (1)
Media Appearances (10)
Wearing Down the Appalachian Trail
With Good Reason online
2021-06-28
Erin Devlin of the University of Mary Washington says before World War Two national parks in the south were segregated reflecting the laws and customs of the Jim Crow south.
WATCH NOW: Fredericksburg and Mary Washington place temporary marker honoring Freedom Riders (The Free Lance-Star; Martinsville Bulletin
The Free Lance-Star print
2021-05-05
“This is what work looks like,” said Frye, describing the joint effort between the city; University of Mary Washington professors Erin Devlin and Christine Henry; and Chris Williams, assistant director of UMW’s James Farmer Multicultural Center, that resulted in the approval of the new state historic marker. “If we could just clap a lot for Fredericksburg today.”
UMW, City of Fredericksburg partner in effort to more accurately tell the local Civil Rights story
The Free Lance-Star online
2020-08-18
Students and professors at the University of Mary Washington will assist Fredericksburg officials in efforts to more fully tell the story of the local civil rights movement.
Historian David Marsich to Present for St. George’s 300th Anniversary Lecture Series
Fredericksburg Today online
2020-07-02
Dr. Erin Devlin of the University of Mary Washington will look at the history of the church amidst racial strife and the civil rights era.
UMW, City working to place historical marker at downtown site of Freedom Riders first stop
The Free Lance-Star online
2020-06-29
On May 4, 1961, the original 13 Freedom Riders departed Washington on Greyhound and Trailways buses. Williams, Devlin and Henry, in partnership with the City of Fredericksburg, have started the process of applying for the marker from the state Department of Historical Resources.
Jim Crow in the Great Outdoors
withgoodreasonradio.org online
2020-06-10
Camping, hiking, and enjoying the great outdoors are American pastimes. But for African Americans, gathering in public spaces has long been fraught. Erin Devlin discusses the racism that was built into our America’s national parks.
Study Seeks to Document the History of National Park Segregation and its Lasting Effects
WVTF online
2020-02-25
Erin Devlin is a history professor at University of Mary Washington. She’s pored over planning documents, blueprints, and maps in the hopes of understanding how segregation was implemented at the park. "There are some picnic tables that are in an open meadow and there are other picnic tables that are in a shaded wood," Devlin notes. "And that is a product of, in some cases, this legacy of planning for segregation and that there was a desire to tuck away African-American visitors in quiet corners of the parks."
Shenandoah National Park Is Confronting Its History
outsideonline.com online
2019-09-24
“Basically, the park was segregated on an ad hoc basis,” says Erin Devlin, associate professor of history and American studies at the University of Mary Washington, who is leading the study of the five national parks in Virginia
National Parks Traveler Episode 26: Segregation In the Parks, and Winter in Everglades
National Parks Traveler online
2019-08-12
Dr. Erin Devlin, a professor of American history from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, discusses her research into sites in national parks in Virginia that were associated with segregation during the first half of the 20th century.
UMW professor, students collaborate with National Park Service for segregation exhibit
The Free Lance-Star; Culpeper Star-Exponent print
2019-08-07
Erin Devlin, assistant professor of history and American studies at UMW, is working with the NPS to develop a historic resource study that will examine the practice of racial segregation in Virginia’s national parks during the first half of the 20th century.
Articles (1)
Navigating the Green Book; The Negro Travelers' Green Book Interactive Map
The Journal of American History2017 The Web site Navigating the Green Book provides visitors with map-based tools for exploring the landscape of Jim Crow–era travel in the United States. From 1936 to 1966 Victor Green produced a guide for African American travelers that highlighted the restaurants, hotels, service stations, and nightclubs that provided service to black patrons. The New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has digitized its twenty-one-volume collection of Green Books, as the annual travel guides were informally known. NYPL Labs, tasked with expanding the use of the library's collections through digital tools, created Navigating the Green Book to enable virtual travelers to explore the guides and imagine “how the size of the world can change depending on the color of your skin.”...
