The Legislature established the West Virginia Conservation Commission Division of State Parks in 1933 to manage the state's growing park system, and to leverage the resources and expertise of the National Park Service (NPS), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and other New Deal-era programs for further park development. By 1945, the Division of State Parks had expanded to 13 state parks with the addition of its first USACE reservoir park at Tygart Lake. Because African Americans were denied access to West Virginia's state parks and forests, the Division of State Parks created the only state park on the basis of racial segregation, Booker T. Washington State Park, in 1949. African Americans were restricted from the remainder of the state park and forest systems until the park and forest systems' integration following the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the United States Supreme Court in May 1954.
