Commemorating Madison Grant in California State Parks

Abstract

A memorial in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in Northern California continued to honor the name of Madison Grant (1865–1937) until 2021. De Forest Grant (Madison’s younger brother), John D. Rockefeller Jr., the New York Zoological Society, and others dedicated the monument in 1948. Madison Grant’s most well-known book, The Passing of the Great Race (1916), became the basis for monumental atrocities leading up to and during World War II. This article explores Grant’s racist legacy and claims he made that successfully convinced lawmakers to pass legislation restricting the rights of non-White peoples and immigrants. His book and the ideas it contained continue to serve as a basis for hate and exclusion in the United States.