TULSA, Okla.–President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday targeting “improper ideology” at the Smithsonian Institution’s museums, parks and research facilities, including the National Museum of African American History.
In the order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” Trump directs Vice President J.D. Vance to reshape the nation’s understanding of its racial history. It orders him to eliminate from these federal properties any references to institutional racism, sexism or other elements of history that cast the country in a “negative light.”
The order accuses former President Joe Biden’s administration of promoting a “false reconstruction of American history.”
It could impact operations, programs and funding for the largest museum in the nation dedicated to preserving the history, oppression and contributions of Black Freedmen and African Americans.
Under Biden’s Democratic administration, several monuments honoring Confederate soldiers, slaveholders and genocidal colonizers faced removal or replacement with monuments honoring notable Black figures and civil rights leaders, like Emmett Till, Harriet Tubman, Coretta Scott King, and Black military veterans.
“Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed,” Trump’s order states.
Cliff Owen/AP
Founder of Black History Saturdays responds to Trump order
Trump’s order targeting the Smithsonian museum network comes after his administration began in January by blocking the nation’s attempts at a racial reckoning of its past and present.
His administration has taken down records of historical Black and female military service-members, eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across federal agencies and threatening to remove federal funding from dozens of Universities over their DEI policies.
“When a government begins to erase the histories of the oppressed, it isn’t just rewriting the past, it’s shaping a future where justice, accountability, and collective healing no longer have a place,” Kristi Williams told the Black Wall Street Times Friday.”
Williams is the founder of Black History Saturdays in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a community-based educational curriculum open to students and adults in a state that limited discussions on race and history in the classroom through the passage of House Bill 1775.
She’s also a descendant of survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, when a city-sanctioned White mob burned, bombed looted and extinguished the lives of at least 300 Black, men women and children in the Greenwood District, home to Black Wall Street.
“As the founder of Black History Saturdays, I created our program to preserve what systems continue to erase. I didn’t wait for approval, a grant, or permission ot teach our children and our community their truth,” she said.
The classes operate from a community center called EduRec, owned by Charles Harper, and the church basement of the historic Vernon A.M.E. church, home to Sr. Pastor Keith Mayes. It was one of the few structures to survive the 1921 government-sanctioned racial domestic terror attack.
Tulsa moves forward on racial reckoning as nation backslides
In recent weeks, the city’s newly elected, first Black Mayor Monroe Nichols announced plans to being efforts of repair for survivors and descendants of the Massacre. He also declared June 1 Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day in the city for the first time in over a century.
“Let’s be clear. Black history is not ideology. It is fact. It is lived experience; It is legacy. And whether it’s told in a Smithsonian museum or in a Saturday classroom on the North side of Tulsa, we will keep telling the truth,” Williams said.
Black History Saturdays began with meager support from the community, but it’s evolved into being supported by National Geographic. Williams herself has become a National Geographic explorer, taking her story to rooms around the world.
“But truth needs protection and truth-tellers need support. This is exactly why we must fund programs and movements like Black History Saturdays because we don’t know how much longer they’ll survive in this political climate,” Williams said.
Future uncertain for Smithsonian National Museum of African American History
Trump’s executive order targeting the Smithsonian network of museums, parks and research facilities also directs the Secretary of the Interior to review any monuments or memorials that were taken down during the Biden administration. It directs the Secretary to reinstate those monuments and to ensure no monuments disparage the colonial slave-holding founders of the country.
Formed by an act of Congress, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History first opened its doors on September 24, 2016.
According to its website, the museum’s mission is to capture and share the “unvarnished truth of African American history and culture” by connecting stories, scholarship, art and artifacts to “illuminate the contributions, struggles, and triumphs that have shaped our nation.”
In 2023, the museum opened up a popular Afrofuturism exhibit for a year, dedicated to artistry that centered the Black experience in innovative and creative ways.
Featuring over 100 objects from music, film, television, comic books, fashion, theater, literature, and beyond, the exhibit explored more than a century of Afrofuturism’s vibrant legacy and examines its wide-reaching impact on American culture.
It remains unclear how Trump’s order will impact the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History. Its existence appears to defy many aspects of the order.
“The Democratic Party needs to do more than release statements, it needs to fund the fight,” Williams said. “It’s time to stop playing defense and start protecting the people, the programs and the history that white supremacy is trying to erase…again.”
Related Stories:
- Afrofuturism exhibit at National Museum of African American History
- Harriet Tubman monument replaces Columbus in New Jersey
- Virginia evicts Confederate monuments from its state Capitol
- Kristi Williams becomes National Geographic Explorer and Wayfinder Award Recipient
Wonderful ??
What I wanted to know why is it that blacks always look to find and follow white folks, for business etc. when blacks are the foundation for America , everyone know that, from the white house to past going to the future. God make black people the smartest in the world. Now I am a inventor and I need to find an invention company that is own by a black person. okay please help me in this. I would appreciated very much.
`I know one thing there not going to have a picture place at the white house. if he does it be call the nutty clown who thought he was president. lol