Many  Vicksburg National Park staff lose jobs due to Trump’s executive orders

The National Park Service announced Friday that at least 1,000 of its newest employees were shown the door, while some adjustments are being made over whether to rehire 5,000 seasonal employees whose jobs were suspended in January as part of the federal hiring freeze Trump announced.

No specific number of terminations at the Vicksburg site was given due to park closures on Monday and Tuesday, but it was reported that Park geologist John Schweikart was among those fired. 

While the Trump administration set about firing the current slate of government new hires at the National Park Service, it reopened the door for about 5,000 seasonal employees whose jobs had been suspended temporarily only a month ago.

Bennie McRae, a regular Jackson Advocate contributor and researcher on the Black troops of the Civil War era, says he fears the recently announced layoffs at the Vicksburg National Park may bring to an end, or at least temporarily suspend, the ongoing project of recovering the bodies of about 102 Black Civil War soldiers swept from their graves due to heavy rainfall and erosion in recent years.

“The geologist in charge of the project was among those fired,” McRae said. “I didn’t think they would go that far. But they did. I understand that the bodies are in a building for temporary storage while they wait for the land and the gravesites to be restored for reburial.

 “The Friends of the National Park at Vicksburg, the local citizens’ organization that has supported the restoration, has not decided whether it will continue to support the project. However, Gen. Robert Crear, the leader of the organization, says they’re still on board for now.” 

Some Park observers see little sense in the dismissal of full-time employees who will be replaced by temporary, seasonal workers.

“Exempting National Park Service seasonal staff from the federal hiring freeze means parks can fill some visitor services positions,” said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association. “But with the peak season just weeks away, the decision to slash 1,000 permanent, full-time jobs from national parks is reckless and could have serious public safety and health consequences.”

“The Park Service will try to do what is right,” Vicksburg Park Superintendent Carrie Mardorf said as the restoration process got under way in 2023. “It is clearly understood by everyone involved in the plan for retrieval and reburial that this federal project is under federal mandate by the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior. We’re going to stabilize the land and put those terraces back in.”

 The Vicksburg National Cemetery is the nation’s largest Civil War Cemetery containing 17,500 graves. It is also the burial ground for more than 7,240 United States Colored Troops (USCT) from the Civil War, the largest number of Black soldiers buried anywhere in the United States.