Trump sets sights on national African American history museum

Adam Sanchez  remembers tears streaming down a student’s face as his high school class left the lower level of the National African American Museum of History and Culture a few years ago.

“Everyone understood why he had tears in his eyes," said Sanchez, a former high school history teacher.

Sanchez gathered his students there on a field trip from New York City in a quiet space to reflect on the exhibits on slavery and the Middle Passage. “It was such a powerful experience for all of them,” he said.

The Smithsonian Institution museum opened with much fanfare nine years ago and has been lauded for its mission to share the good and the bad of the Black experience in America, including slavery. Now, it’s also in the sights of President Donald Trump, who called its work part of a “widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history.”

"Museums in our nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn ‒ not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history," Trump said in a recent executive order about parks and museums.

It's not clear what Trump's directive will mean for the national African American museum, if anything. But its director, Kevin Young, stepped down April 4, a little more than a week after Trump's executive order.

The museum, which hosted 1.6 million visitors in 2024, serves as a cornerstone in the preservation of African American history, a number of community leaders and organizations said in its defense.

“From slavery to civil rights to the cultural innovations that continue to shape the world, the museum ensures these stories are not forgotten, denied, or politicized,’’ the National Council of Negro Women said in a statement.

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“Anything under the sun is susceptible," said Vedet Coleman-Robinson, executive director of the Association of African American Museums. “It would be a travesty to not have your culture-specific museums anywhere in the country, but definitely in the (nation’s) capital.”

History comes alive

Sanchez took 15 students from Harvest Collegiate High School on the field trip to the African American museumin 2017, the same week as Trump’s first inauguration. Sanchez had taught classes onslavery and Reconstruction and another on the civil rights movement.

“I knew that the museum was going to bring this history to life in a way that you couldn’t in the classroom,’’ said Sanchez, now managing editor of Rethinking Schools, a social justice teaching publication. “And it certainly did.”

Nakiyah Rowe, then a student on the trip, said it gave her a sense of strength and pride.

“The museum highlights the deep, complex history of African Americans and their contributions to this country,’" she wrote in a recent note shared with USA TODAY.

And, she said, it plays a crucial role in educating society "about the rich, complex, and often overlooked history of African Americans."

Schools have long overlooked important aspects of African American history, said Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization pushing to end mass incarceration.

The organization has a museum and a sculpture park in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to telling the story of the African American experience, including slavery, in America.

“I don't think schools have ever done a great job of teaching people about many aspects of our history," he said. “That's why you go to the Smithsonian. That's why you go to spaces that are trying to fill those gaps."

Push to 'restore' the Smithsonian Institution

In Trump's recent order, “Restoring truth and sanity to American history," he complained the Smithsonian has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology."

“This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive," he said.

Those teachings make America look bad and undermine its achievements, Trump and some conservatives have said. “We will restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness," the order reads.

It calls for Vice President JD Vance to join in a role with the Smithsonian Board of Regents tohelp map out new policies. It prohibits spending on exhibits or programs “that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy."

Singling out the African American history museum

The African American history museum is singled out in Trump's order putting it in the spotlight, despite its millions of visitors.

During his first term, Trump was one of them.

"I pledge to do everything I can to continue that promise of freedom for African-Americans and for every American," he said then.

The museum not only highlights tragic events, but the joys and culture of the African American experience, Lonnie Bunch, the museum's founding director and now Secretary of the overall Smithsonian Institution, has said.

Over the years, Bunch, had led the effort to collect tens of thousands of artifacts. In addition to featuring the history of slavery, Reconstruction and Civil Rights, the permanent collection includes an exhibit of African American music from the arrival of the first Africans to hip-hop and one on the contributions of Black athletes both "on and off the field."

“I’m proudest of the fact that we were able to go from no collections to 40,000 amazing artifacts that can tell the story of America through an African-American lens,” Bunch told USA TODAY in a 2016 interview months before the museum opened to much fanfare.

At the grand opening that September, former Republican President George W. Bush, who had signed the bill authorizing federal funding for the museum, and Barack Obama, a Democrat and then the nation’s first Black president, delivered passionate speeches supporting the museum.

The museum houses other original items, including a slave cabin and the shawl of abolitionist Harriet Tubman. There are also oral histories featuring interviews with veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

Sanchez said it’s even more important now to take students on trips to museums like it.

“There is a vigorous effort to erase this history and to ensure that it is not taught in our schools,’’ he said. “So it’s even more important to be able to show these artifacts and to be able to actually go see that this is real."