Erasing Us Twice? Trump’s War on Black History and Southern Truth
From slave cabins to resistance figures, the National Museum of African American History and Culture tells our Southern story. The President’s recent EO threatens to silence it — again.
In the heart of Washington D.C., stands the National Museum of African American History and Culture — a monument of truth — a place where the South’s painful, proud, and powerful past is preserved in plain sight.
Walk through its floors, and you’ll encounter a slave cabin from South Carolina, the Bible of Nat Turner, and the glass-topped casket of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old lynched in Mississippi. These aren’t abstract lessons — they’re tangible proof of what the South has endured, survived, and transformed. We’re talking sacred Southern artifacts.
And now, they’ve been labeled as “problematic” by a president who would rather restore Confederate statues than reckon with Southern Black truth.
The unfortunate reality is that we’ve been here before. After the Civil War, the South didn’t honor Black freedom — they erased it. Confederate monuments were built to replace Reconstruction with revisionism, to frame white supremacy as valor. The first erasure happened when these monuments were built under false pretenses — glorifying men who fought to keep Black people enslaved. Now, the second erasure threatens spaces like the NMAAHC, which dares to set the record straight.
The Stains Aren’t Coming Out
On Thursday, Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order directs the Smithsonian Institution to remove exhibitions and educational materials deemed “improper, divisive, or anti-American.” At the top of the list? The National Museum of African American History and Culture, singled out by name.
Following the Executive Order, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III sent a message to staff reaffirming the Institution’s commitment to scholarship and inclusive history. “We remain steadfast in our mission… free of partisanship… to help the American public better understand our nation’s history, challenges, and triumphs.”
The NMAAHC is filled with Southern Black truth. From Reconstruction-era resistance to the civil rights movement, the museum’s halls echo with the stories of enslaved people, sharecroppers, students, pastors, musicians, and freedom fighters.
The order criticizes NMAAHC for suggesting that concepts like “individualism” or the “nuclear family” have been historically racialized. It accuses the museum of promoting ideology rather than education. But what it really does is criminalize context—a dangerous precedent for anyone telling the truth about race, history, and power in America.
Even Michael Steele, a Black Republican, called the executive order an attempt to rewrite history: “Can we stop BSing ourselves with the pretense that any of this is ok,” Steele adds. “The history is not ideology — it’s fact. It’s history; and no matter how much Trump and MAGA Republicans try to “whitewash” history, sorry, those stains ain’t coming out!”
Trump’s EO also instructs the Department of the Interior to restore Confederate monuments, statues, and symbols that were removed or altered since 2020—many of which came down in response to mass protests after the murder of George Floyd.
Confederate Reinstatement: A Dangerous Precedent in the South
By pushing to restore Confederate statues, as the executive order suggests, it sends a signal to Southern states that they now have federal backing to reverse course.
That could mean:
Enslaver and traitor monuments could return to public parks and courthouse lawns.
Southern states may feel emboldened to double down on “heritage” rhetoric.
Local school boards and museums could face pressure to water down or remove honest accounts of slavery, segregation, and resistance.
This isn’t about preserving history—it’s about preserving power through distortion.
Not on the South’s Watch
As this executive order attempts to erase the truth and elevate the latter, Southern leaders are making one thing clear: we see what’s happening—and we refuse to be silent.
“Wiping away ‘improper ideology’ means erasing valuable history and the stories of our ancestors,” warned Mississippi Congressman Bennie G. Thompson. “It is clear that JD Vance and the entire Trump administration are a clear and present danger.” Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, a Florida native, reminded us what’s truly under attack: “The National Museum of African American History and Culture reveals the truth about our nation’s past. Yet a new executive order calls for removing ‘divisive ideology’ and singled out the NMAAHC.”
In Texas, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett called out the hypocrisy head-on: “First Trump removes any reference of diversity from the present—now he’s trying to remove it from our history. Let me be PERFECTLY clear—you cannot erase our past and you cannot stop us from fulfilling our future.” And Louisiana Rep. Troy A. Carter defended the National Museum by name: “Our history is American history—it’s essential. Our stories matter. Our contributions helped build this nation. I will not be silent.”
13 & South is a new publication covering news, investigative stories, and insights on social justice, policy, and systemic inequities impacting Southern Black communities. I value your insights, and feedback and invite your perspectives to contribute to future issues. Please feel free to contact me here or follow me on my socials! LinkedIn, Twitter, IG, BlueSky, and Threads.
The traitor states are still in rebellion, time to finish reconstruction or kick them out.