‘Bigoted stunt’: MLK, Juneteenth free days axed at Miami-area national parks
Visitors to Florida’s three national parks are losing two free entrance days next year. And critics say the choice of holidays — Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth — appears to be a pointed jab at the Black community.
Starting next year, visitors on those days will have to pony up the usual $20 to $30 entrance fee to Everglades National Park or Biscayne and Dry Tortugas National Park, instead of the free entry that has been the norm for years. Other free entry holidays include Memorial Day, Veterans Day and a new one: President Donald Trump’s Birthday, which happens to also be Flag Day.
It’s the latest in a series of shifts that critics say makes U.S. National Parks less welcoming for nonwhite people, a longstanding challenge for these spaces. Multiple studies over the last three decades found that visitors to national parks are overwhelmingly white.
Cara Capp, the greater Everglades associate director of the National Park Conservation Association, called the removal of these days “a step backward” in the longtime push to encourage more people of color to visit national parks. The NPCA sent a letter to the federal government questioning the decision and has yet to hear back.
“What we want is everyone to feel welcome in visiting our parks,” she said. “To remove these days is certainly another attack on Black history and the opposite of a welcoming stance.”
Under the latest Trump administration, the Department of the Interior has asked park visitors to report “signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans,” NPR reported. That appears to be a targeted move toward plaques and signs in national parks sharing the at-times racist history that shaped these spaces, especially in parks that displaced former Native American residents.
And last month, a memo obtained by the National Parks Conservation Association and shared with the Miami Herald ordered national parks to remove items from their gift shop that relate to diversity, equity and inclusion or environmental justice.
“Items identified as noncompliant with this order must be removed from sale immediately,” the memo reads.
Also, starting Jan. 1, 2026, Everglades National Park is one of 11 national parks where anyone who isn’t a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident will pay an additional $100 entry fee, part of the Department of Interior’s new “America-first” pricing plan.
Nonresidents won’t be able to enter the parks for free on the remaining fee-free days, either. That’s reserved only for U.S. residents and citizens.
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson condemned the move by the Trump administration to remove Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day for free entry into national parks, noting that the decision is misguided at a time when families are struggling from his economic policies.
“Making it harder for people to enjoy their national parks on what have long been free-access days does absolutely nothing to help the American people,” she said. “And let’s be clear: targeting these holidays is no accident. It’s clear that this move is an attempt to hurt African-Americans and people of color because, in Trump’s narrow-minded world, he thinks going after these holidays somehow lands a blow on us.”
Wilson said most people of color aren’t going to the national parks during MLK Day, which has long been a day of service for people of color, and Juneteenth, which has been a day for celebrating freedom.
“This bigoted stunt actually only continues to pour gasoline on the affordability crisis for his own MAGA base, who are more inclined to use these holidays and days off work to visit national parks,” she said. “What he meant as a blow to hurt people of color will come back and slap him and his own supporters in the face.”
The tale of Lancelot Jones
It’s too early to know if any of the new policies, including the one about removing DEI-based content from national park bookstores, will impact the offerings for sale in South Florida’s three national parks.
But the region is home to perhaps one of the best known Black champions for a national park — Lancelot Jones.
Jones, a sponge farmer and son of a man who historians believe was likely enslaved in his youth, lived with his family on Porgy Key, north of Key Largo.
Jones sold 277 acres of his family’s land to the National Park Service, instead of developers who were intent on building high rises and casinos on the island chain, in 1970. In 1980, the region was officially designated Biscayne National Park — thanks to the land Jones provided.
Jones and his family’s contributions to the national park were highlighted in a 2009 Ken Burns documentary series titled “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”
A writer and producer for the series, Dayton Duncan, told the Herald in 2006 that despite other strong Black ties to national parks, like the Black “Buffalo soldiers” who patrolled some of the nation’s first park, the Jones family’s role as major landowners was a rarity for the country.
“There may be some other cases, but I’m unaware of them, and believe me, I’m looking,” he said. “That’s what really caught my eye. Here is an African-American family who helped save a beautiful part of America for all of us to enjoy.”
And that legacy has endured, inspiring new generations to connect with South Florida’s unique environment.
A decade ago, Capp said, a student group of mostly Black teenagers became enamored with the story of Jones and helped push Miami-Dade to rename the road into the national park “Sir Lancelot Jones Way.”
“People need to see conservation champions and national parks champions that look like them,” she said.
