When two federal grants to Whitney Farms in Louisiana were withdrawn later last month, the Trump administration appears to be chasing a promise to eradicate what President Trump called “inappropriate ideology” in cultural institutions focusing on black history.
Ultimately, the Plantation mission was to show what life really looked like for those enslaved by visitors, contrary to the history of watered down black people that the president believes are supporting.
The Whitney Plantation executive director then said in an interview, just as the grant recovered a few weeks later.
“Maybe it was a lawsuit exposure,” executive director Ashley Rogers said, “But who knows?”
Since Trump issued the executive order in March, “since he denounced cultural institutions trying to rewrite our country's history and replace objective facts with distorted stories driven by ideology rather than truth, sites like Whitney Plantation have lived with such uncertainty. The order specifically targeting the Smithsonian facility has appointed Vice President J.D. Vance and other White House officials “to remove inappropriate ideology from such property.”
But reversals like those in Louisiana and actions by the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American history and culture seem to indicate uncertainty about the presidential order. They also show that after decades of consideration of the country's racist history, it is more difficult than the administration believes to bring historical knowledge back to the bottle.
“The most concerning phrase I've seen is “inappropriate ideology.” She said, “They couch everything as ideological, and this is already strange because it's true that we're talking about at Whitney Plantation.”
The distortion came from “at the Plantation Museum where they don't talk about slavery, and they try to step into you this idea that the enslaved people were happy.”
When a news article last week claimed that the Smithsonian Museum of African American History began returning artifacts to comply with the president's orders, the Smithsonian issued a statement saying it would not do anything like that.
Nothing was removed for reasons other than complying with standard loan agreements or museum practices,” the agency said.
Two objects returned to Pastor Amos C. Brown – an edition of “The History of the Black Race in America,” one of the first books documenting African American history, and the other was the Bible carried by Rev. Brown during a civil rights protest, apologizing with an apology from the Smithsonian for “misconceptions” about the museum's motivations. In an interview Monday, Rev. Brown said he held a heartfelt video conference with staff at the African American History Museum on Friday, waiting for a panel review to discuss making his artifacts a permanent part of the museum.
“Nothing has been resolved,” he said.
White House aides declined to comment when asked to report progress on the campaign against “inappropriate ideology.”
In the imposing historic home of Frederick Douglas in Washington, DC Last week, 77-year-old visitor Larry Burton said that when he grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, much of Black history was hidden from him. A visit to the homes of famous abolitionists sparked both curiosity and determination to encourage others to learn.
“The rest of my time I have will be making sure my grandchildren know their history,” he said.
The task may be even more complicated if the Trump administration actually succeeds in distorting historical narratives around race. The White House executive order argued that the country's cultural institutions would “rewrite the history of our country and replace objective facts with distorted stories driven by ideology rather than truth.”
The same order specifically targets the Smithsonian facility, claiming it is “under the influence of divisive and racially ideological ideology,” and “a story depicting American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
Then, on Friday, the president's budget picked out the government's 400-year African American Historical Commission “to strengthen accountability, reduce waste and reduce unnecessary government agencies.”
But almost five years after George Floyd's murder opened the door to reveal more of the country's past and thoroughly investigate it, Trump may not be able to close it completely. Historical sites dedicated to black history, and visitors who flock to them, will have their voice.
“I don't understand why he's doing that. I'm trying to get rid of certain things that have happened in history,” Burton said. He compared the administration's attempts at a disadvantage with the slightest black history education he received as a child, and compared its effectiveness. “We thought it wasn't important. We were insignificant,” he said. “But we have a rich history.”
The threat is undoubtedly still there, especially as the White House and Congress scrutinise federal budgets to cut spending. The presidential budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins in October will eliminate museums and library science research labs, the main source of support for many black history sites.
“Without additional support, what we're seeing is that the museum makes significant programmatic cuts, staff cuts, increased postponed maintenance, fewer days or hours they're open to the public, and perhaps even temporary and permanent closures,” the museum's alliance said in a statement. “After all, American communities that benefit from local museums will suffer the greatest losses.”
Some black conservatives agree with the president's approach.
“Constantly upsetting the pot of race and racializing everything was harmful to our society,” said Dr. Carol M. Swain, political scientist and vice-president of Trump's 1776 committee in an interview.
For Dr. Swain, 71, the very existence of the Smithsonian Black History Museum is “problems.” Because it separates history rather than blending black experiences with American stories. The president's executive order said it provides public service to the nation by chasing “tax-payer-funded anti-Americanism.”
Still, the number of historical sites of black people with federal ties makes change difficult. The National Park Service alone lists trails in indicators for over 400 parks, historic sites, coasts and civil rights sites. Funders include the National Trust for Historical Preservation, the Institute of Library Science, and the National Fund for the Humanities.
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“I don't think they'll hinder or stop it now because I have insight,” said Dosa Burton, Burton's wife. “We have knowledge now.”
Rejection also comes from historians and curators.
The museum focused on black history is “targeted to tell the comprehensive history of a more complete and vast American story,” said Dr. Hilary Green, author of “Unforgettable Sacrifice: How the Black Community Remembered the Civil War.”
How Americans remember the past shapes the meaning of the present, and mistakes in it brings consequences. For example, the “lost cause” myth that the Civil War had little or no connection to slavery has been used for generations to reduce the meaning of the war on black liberation and the impact of slavery on American culture, economics and caste.
Rogers of Whitney Plantation expressed his understanding that painful parts of our history can create a fear of being considered “bad.” She said she still has deep resistance to acknowledging the continued impact of slavery on American society.
But she said, “If you ignore it, the wound won't improve. It's just holding back.”
After the release of the Record Smash TV miniseries Roots in 1977, many African Americans were encouraged to search for family history, demanding access to records that were previously unavailable or ignored. Institutions such as libraries and archives have changed the way historical material is collected and preserved. Dr. Green said.
Many black communities were the custodians of their own stories, maintaining archives, telling stories for generations, creating local museums and historical societies, ensuring that stories and contributions were remembered and documented.
The movement reached its peak at the Museum of African American History and Culture.
Quentin Peacock, 47, brought his family from North Carolina to visit the museum on a recent day in April. His mind was filled with new facts he learned on his tour, including the friendship between Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. He also takes heartfelt care that the visitors on the day are racially diverse, and emphasizes his belief that telling the truth about American history is not essentially a “splitting.”
“It's an African American history museum, but there's also a white history there,” said Peacock, a black father. People of all races have connections to the history presented, he adds, and attempts to interrupt or challenge the operation will be “harmful to not only us, but all cultures.”
