Trump changes to Black history exhibits spark fears of self-censorship, loss of information

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Trump changes to Black history exhibits spark fears of self-censorship, loss of information

The Trump administration is looking to change how Black history is presented at the park sites and museums under its influence.

President Trump, who has eyes on the nation’s 250th birthday this summer, says historical sites focus too much on the issue of slavery instead of the “success” of the country. His administration has been accused of whitewashing the history of slavery at Smithsonian Institution facilities and National Park Service sites, including recently the President’s House in Philadelphia.

Advocates worry Trump’s efforts are creating a world where employees will self-censor exhibits and Americans will miss valuable information about the country’s history.

A federal judge, appointed by former President George W. Bush, last week restored the Philadelphia exhibit after the administration ordered the removal of parts detailing the legacy of George Washington’s slaves. The Trump administration says it will appeal the decision, which came in the middle of Black History Month.

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not,” U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe said in her ruling.

Another group of history and park organizations have banded together to sue the administration for allegedly removing hundreds of signs at parks after Trump signed an executive order last year directing the Interior Department to review and remove exhibits from public sites that “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

The lawsuit alleges exhibits flagged for review include one of an enslaved man in Louisiana who had scars covering his back, and that signs that have been taken down include one at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge at the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York, which referred to atrocities “we hope never to repeat — like slavery, massacres of Indians, or holding Japanese Americans in wartime camps.”

“Here’s also the chilling effect that happens when park sites are forced to remove information. Those park employees and volunteers are then afraid for their own jobs, or doing what their bosses tell them, and keeping their heads down, second-guessing themselves, removing material before it’s even been flagged or flagging that material so it can be reviewed, and it’s a incredibly obstructive regime that’s been placed on the Park Service,” said John R. Dichtl, president and CEO of the American Association for State and Local History, one of the groups suing the administration.

“It makes people afraid, makes people cautious, makes people not pursue work that they were working on or hoping to work on, because they think it will get them targeted, or it will mean they won’t be eligible for federal funds. … It’s cutting off the public’s access to the best historical information that we know,” Dichtl added.

The Trump administration’s efforts to exert control over the nation’s historical sites have accelerated as the U.S. approaches its semiquincentennial. The White House has already pressured the Smithsonian to turn over its plans for the anniversary for review.

“President Trump pledged to restore truth and common sense to the United States and its institutions, and is ensuring that we are honoring the fullness of the American story instead of distorting it in the name of Left-wing ideology,” said Davis Ingle, a spokesperson for the White House.

The Hill has reached out to the Department of the Interior for further comment.

While U.S. museums detail the dark history of slavery, W. Gabriel Selassie, an assistant professor at the department of Africana studies at California State University, Northridge, noted the same places celebrate the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“I think the museums, just in general, public historians, who do such a fantastic job of interpreting this history … and I think that the current administration really, fundamentally, doesn’t understand the history that it’s reading and how those interpretations done by these museums and public historians [are] meant to try to foster a different kind of mythology that everyone in the United States can coalesce around and see our shared Americanness,” Selassie said.

“I don’t think they see the dual sides of the coin here, I think they only see things that are meant to embarrass them, or, to be honest, white people, and they don’t see a lot of the triumphs from these bad things,” he added.

Before Trump returned to the Oval Office, red states were also working to revise lesson plans surrounding Black history, including in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) supported efforts to forbid the teaching of racial history that makes some students “uncomfortable,” and the state banned AP Black History classes from public schools, saying it “lacks educational value.”

And while the Trump administration does not have control over classroom curricula, it has worked to target schools over diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Along with legal efforts to combat changes, advocates want to see more people get involved in telling the story of Black history and not leave it up to lawmakers.

“Don’t wait for it to be taught to you. Go out and get the information. I think that is what we’re seeing right now. Under this administration, it is calling on everyone to recognize that this is not a spectator sport. If you want our history to be preserved, you’re going to have to get into the game, you’re going to have to participate, you’re going to have to collect the information and you’re going to have to share the information,” said Karsonya Wise Whitehead, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

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