“I want history to remember me… as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.”
—Shirley Chisholm
Our freedom to learn is under attack. As in times of enslavement, when many of our ancestors were not allowed to read for fear that knowledge would lead to liberation, we are now being silenced for speaking the truth: that Black history is American history, and it cannot and will not be erased. We are being banned from reading books that speak to this reality and to Black experiences. From the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to the President’s House Site to your local library, we must continue to speak out, talk back, and tell the truth, as this is essential to preserving our democracy.
This administration is removing books like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and How Racism Takes Place from the Naval Academy library while Mein Kampf remains and requiring the National Park Service to remove an exhibit in Philadelphia that recounts George Washington's history of slave ownership. Over the past year, the Trump administration has accelerated the campaign to erase Black history and Black knowledge from our sites of national memory and learning, including K-12 schools, higher education, national parks, military cemeteries, and, of course, museums.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) was opened in 2016, after decades of bureaucratic struggle and intense curatorial planning. Its mission is to “share the unvarnished truth of African American history and culture” and “to illuminate the contributions, struggles, and triumphs that have shaped our nation.” It was created by a dream team of historians and curators with unparalleled credentials, yet their work was discredited by an executive order drafted by an attorney whose only relevant qualification was having visited the Smithsonian “at least three times.” Undermining the authority of acclaimed Black experts by replacing them with or putting them under the control of individuals who exemplify white mediocrity has been a hallmark of the second Trump administration.
At the state level, these efforts are even more intensified and absurd. In Florida, the state infamous for teaching students the “personal benefits” of enslavement, the history of McCarthyism has been rewritten in their Social Studies Standards as a positive force in U.S. society and civil rights movement organizations have been labeled as suspected communist front organizations. Things are so turned upside down that Black law students at a Florida HBCU were told they “couldn’t use the word ‘Black’ in Black History Month [event flyers]…[they] would have to abbreviate it.” African American Studies programs are being shut down at public universities, while PragerU videos are approved for classroom use in at least 10 states.
Organizing in defense of our freedom to learn the realities of American history, especially as we approach the 250th commemorations, is not just an important symbolic gesture. It is at the heart of the fight for democracy itself. On Monday, in a ruling ordering the National Park Service to restore the exhibits about George Washington as a slaveholder in Philadelphia, a judge appointed by President George W. Bush agreed with this assessment: “Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery, receives a false account of this country’s history.” She stated, “this court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not.”
In this critical moment, we must stand up for civil rights, for the accurate accounting of history, for our books, our voices and our lives.
The Freedom to Learn is the Freedom to Live.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Join the fight for the freedom to learn by adding your name to the Black History Is American History affirmation and follow AAPF’s campaign for ways to get involved this May during the Freedom to Learn National Week of Action.
LEARN MORE
Egregious Erasures of History and Truth: https://bit.ly/EgregiousErasures
PragerU Wants to Capitalize on PBS Defunding - The American Prospect
Erasing the Past: The Trump administration's attacks on history since 2025
CALLS TO ACTION
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