Gospel music fills the room at the African American History Museum in Washington, D.C., where Emmett Till’s half-opened exhumed casket is held as it was at his funeral in 1955. This past summer, as I entered that same room, I wasn’t able to control the tears and raw emotion that the exhibit caused me to experience. Countless exhibits within that same museum produce similar emotions for visitors of all backgrounds. Exhibitions that show the truth of the livelihoods that the “American Dream” was built upon. The death, sacrifice and brutality thousands faced at the hands of oppressors. The African American History Museum tells hard, needed truths to the American public, and the Trump administration has begun to do anything within their willpower to prevent those truths from being heard.
The truths echoed off the walls of the African American History Museum are just the precipice of what the Trump administration is trying to downplay and censor. This past March, President Trump issued an executive order titled ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.’ Within this order, he outlined plans to re-examine exhibits and displays across the Smithsonian complex in Washington, D.C. The complex covers a wide variety of topics, encompassing 21 museums and galleries as well as the National Zoo.
In his executive order, the President wrote that over the past administration and in recent years of the country, the ideals of America have become skewed and inaccurately displayed at Smithsonian museums and exhibits. As part of ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,’ President Trump describes the changes as causing the “nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness” to be “reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” The supposed revisions that President Trump is describing are simply the truth. America was founded by racist men who cared for no one except themselves and their own societal advancement.
Further along in the executive order, President Trump outlines his administration’s plans to revise the materials presented at the Smithsonian museums to better align with “American ideals.” The president exemplifies the issues by using multiple different exhibits within the complex and explaining that they highlighted “American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” Except the fact is that American values are built on a foundation of oppression. Sure, the American dream is one of starting from scratch and building a legacy, but the America that so many dream of is built upon the backs of others. The Smithsonian exists to highlight American truths. The attempted censorship of these truths by the Trump administration is disgusting.
Another ploy at disguised censorship by the Trump administration also came in March, close to the same time as the ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History’ executive order. According to the Museums Association, the entire workforce at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) was placed on administrative leave following an executive order two weeks ago, effectively dismantling the institute. The IMLS plays a key role as the sole federal agency dedicated to supporting and funding museums. A move by the Trump administration to disband such an organization exemplifies how they are attempting to control the American image to fit their ideology. An ideology that is only sided with one side of history, the one that shines a positive light, not a truthful one.
Even though the Trump administration continues to use political chess moves to produce an image of America that is extremely censored, their moves aren’t always legal. According to the New York Times, a congressional watchdog found that the move to disband the IMLS was illegal. Congressional ethics officials found the dispersal and disruption in funding was an illegal impoundment, which is prohibited under a 1970s law meant to restrict the president and his ability to defy Congress on spending.
The illegality of the Trump administration’s actions shows that they will do anything, without consideration of how their actions will affect their own credibility. They continue to describe their intentions towards the Smithsonian as backed by the belief that America needs to reconsider how it approaches history, but how can any American take that belief credibly when the administration continues to break law after law? The disbandment of the IMLS, an organization focused solely on museums, exemplifies how the Trump administration is attempting to control the American narrative on history, culture and overall opinion of how the country’s past influences where we are now.
The coercion of American history and the arts by the Trump administration doesn’t exclusively apply to the censorship of the Smithsonian exhibits in Washington D.C. The administration has begun to use a multitude of tactics, starting with dismantling the leadership within the Smithsonian organization. This past May, Kim Sajet, the previous director of the National Portrait Gallery, stepped down from her position after a confrontation between her and President Trump when he wrote on his social platform, Truth Social, that she is “a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI.” President Trump claimed that he fired Sajet, but in reality, she stepped down from her position. Sajet’s resignation shows how the Trump administration has used intimidation tactics to further their position and power over Americans and those in charge who they disagree with.
Another form of censorship and control in relation to the National Portrait Gallery came this past July when prominent American painter Amy Sherald pulled out of her planned exhibit at the gallery after a request from the Smithsonian to remove a painting from the showing. The requested removal was a painting titled ‘Trans Forming Liberty,’ which shows the Statue of Liberty as a transgender woman. After the museum came to Sherald with the idea to remove the painting from the show, she dropped out entirely, citing that censorship had taken over the Smithsonian.
In an op-ed piece published by MSNBC, Sherald outlined her reasoning for pulling out of the exhibition. Sherald describes what is occurring as a result of the impending pressure by the Trump administration on the Smithsonian as “policing imagination.” I couldn’t describe it any better myself. The control that the current administration is trying to enforce on the Smithsonian organization is only part of a bigger ideal in which the American image is so singled out that any form of critical thought is blocked.
Sherald writes in her piece that “art carries what is too heavy for language to hold. And museums, at their best, give us the full picture rather than the flattering one.” At times, it’s hard to comprehend the ongoing climate of the U.S., but museums allow us Americans a place to escape. Reflecting on the history of our country is key to understanding the present. The common phrase that history repeats itself is ever so true in the current time. Attempted, and successful at times, censorship by the Trump administration denies access to the entire truth of America. Yes, the history of our country is sad and callous, but it’s also layered with beauty and resistance. Although the freedoms that Americans deserve, and are supposedly promised, are at risk with every move by the government, our history must be protected. The Smithsonian should not fall into the censorship tactics of the Trump administration. It is essential that the organization fight back to protect our history from repetition.
