Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art
President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered his administration to remove photography and signage related to slavery and racial injustice from national parks across the nation, per The Washington Post.
The effort follows Trump's March executive order, titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," which instructs the Interior Department to eliminate content that reflects a “corrosive ideology” or that “disparages historic Americans.”
One image flagged for removal is “The Scourged Back,” a 1863 photograph of a formerly enslaved man named Gordon, showing deep scars from repeated whippings. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the image is “perhaps the most famous of all known Civil War–era portraits of slaves.”
In a statement, National Park Service spokesperson Rachel Pawlitz defended the removal.
“Interpretive materials that disproportionately emphasize negative aspects of U.S. history or historical figures, without acknowledging broader context or national progress, can unintentionally distort understanding rather than enrich it," Pawlitz said.
Trump’s March order also directed Vice President J.D. Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to oversee the removal of what it called “divisive, race-centered ideology” from Smithsonian museums and research institutions.
“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," Trump wrote on Truth Social last month.
“We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made.”
“America cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE," he added.
The order is also impacting content at National Parks related to sexism, LGBTQ+ rights, and the persecution of Indigenous people.
Historian Jonathan Zimmerman of the University of Pennsylvania criticized the administration's efforts.
“This represents an enormous increase in federal power and control over the things we learn. Brought to you by the team that says education should be state and local," Zimmerman said.
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