The Trump administration has begun returning historic artifacts to their owners and quietly removing key exhibits from the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C.
Journalist April Ryan from Black Press USA reports that one of the first major removals includes the original Woolworth’s lunch counter from the 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-in; a pivotal Civil Rights Movement moment. The counter and its surrounding exhibit highlighted the bravery of four Black college students from North Carolina A&T, who peacefully protested segregation by sitting at a whites-only counter. Their actions ignited a wave of similar protests across the South and became a turning point in the fight for racial equality.
The decision is a move to reshape how American history is presented according to the Trump administration. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally now working in Washington, is reportedly leading the charge. According to a Washington Post report, she has been tasked with identifying and eliminating what she calls “improper ideology” in Smithsonian institutions. Halligan believes current exhibits place too much emphasis on the country’s darker history, which she says could divide the nation further.
Her influence is already being felt. Civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Amos Brown was recently notified by museum officials that two significant items loaned to the museum for its Segregation exhibit, his personal Bible and a rare copy of History of the Negro Race in America, 1618-1880, are being returned. The artifacts have been on display since the museum’s opening in 2016.
Dr. Brown, a close associate of historical figures like Medgar Evers and John Lewis, says the decision to return the items is disheartening. He emphasized the personal and historical significance of the items, which reflect a lifetime of activism.
Halligan, who grew up in Colorado and studied politics and journalism at Regis University, is said to have proposed an executive order to Trump after visiting several Smithsonian museums. With Trump’s approval, she now appears to be spearheading efforts to revise or remove exhibits she views as ideologically biased.
The NMAAHC — often called the “Blacksonian” — has stood as a vital space for telling the unfiltered history of Black America. Its removal of core exhibits now signals a potential shift in national memory and public education under Trump’s second term.
As historians and activists brace for more removals, questions loom over how far this cultural reset will go, and what will remain of the nation’s most comprehensive museum chronicling African American history.
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