[1] The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed March 12, 2019, by President Donald Trump, re-designated it as a national historical park.

[3] The campaign to create a Reconstruction Era National Monument spanned fifteen years, beginning in the final days of the Bill Clinton administration, when outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt visited the Beaufort area, accompanied by historian Eric Foner, author of the book Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877.

[4] The proposal was revived in 2015, however, after two historians commissioned by the Park Service — Gregory Downs of the University of California, Davis and Kate Masur of Northwestern University—undertook a field study of sites associated with the Reconstruction era and issued a report entitled National Historical Landmark Theme Study on the U.S. Reconstruction Era, 1861–1898.

[6] A proposal to create the Reconstruction Era National Monument through executive action received overwhelming support at a public meeting held by Clyburn and the Park Service in December 2016.

As a result, it was one of the first places in the United States where emancipated slaves "voted, bought property and created churches, schools and businesses.