In March 2025, I raised an alarm on Cloaking Inequity when tributes to Jackie Robinson—one of the most iconic figures in American history—were quietly removed from Department of Defense webpages. That post, The Erasure of Black History in the Name of an Assault on DEI, chronicled a disturbing moment: the U.S. government not only failed to honor a pioneer but actively participated in rewriting the narrative of his service.
What started as an isolated “technical error,” supposedly the work of artificial intelligence, is actually a part of a broader, purposeful pattern of historical whitewashing. Robinson’s military heroism was intentionally erased, only to be hastily reinstated following public backlash (see When Loyalty Replaces Qualifications: The Cost to Democracy—and How We Push Back).
And now, we’re here again.
This time, they’ve come for Harriet Tubman.
The Whitewashing of Harriet Tubman
The National Park Service, under the direction of the Trump administration, has updated its official webpage on the Underground Railroad. Gone is the striking portrait of Tubman. Gone is her own voice, where she once described herself as “the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years.” Gone, too, are the clear references to slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and the resistance of enslaved Black Americans seeking freedom.
In place of these truths is a sanitized narrative that emphasizes “Black/White cooperation.” A collage of postal stamps featuring abolitionists—Black and white—is now the banner image. The site now opens with this line: “The Underground Railroad is one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement.” No mention of bondage. No mention of violent escape. No mention of the hundreds of lives Tubman helped free.
This isn’t just a simple redesign. It’s historical revisionism at the highest levels of federal government—an intentional reframing of resistance as cooperation, of oppression as a shared challenge, and of Harriet Tubman as a footnote instead of the central figure.
A Dangerous Pattern Emerges
This latest act is part of a growing and dangerous movement to erase the narratives that center Black resistance and truth in the American story. Since returning to office, Trump has issued a series of executive orders designed to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across federal agencies and public education.
We are seeing the consequences play out in real time:
- The Smithsonian Institution has been barred from hosting exhibits that “divide Americans based on race.”
- Webpages honoring Black soldiers in the Revolutionary War have been scrubbed.
- Mentions of slavery and systemic racism have disappeared from federal historic sites.
- Teacher training grants with equity components are being slashed under the guise of eliminating “wokeness.”
- And now, Harriet Tubman’s erasure from the National Park Service is the clearest signal yet: Black stories of resistance are under attack.
Today I detailed these threats in Public Education in Danger: The Five Executive Orders You Need to Know About. These policies don’t just shift rhetoric—they reshape what future generations will learn, honor, and internalize as the truth.
If Tubman’s story can be reframed, who’s next? Frederick Douglass? Ida B. Wells? Martin Luther King Jr.?
Memory as Power, History as Liberation
Harriet Tubman was not a symbol of cooperation. She was a symbol of defiance, of liberation, and of radical love. She led enslaved people through forests and across rivers, often at night, with nothing but courage and a relentless commitment to freedom.
Erasing that story, softening its language, and repositioning her legacy in the background of “cooperation” is more than disrespect. It is an attempt to strip power from the Black radical tradition—a tradition that challenges American myth-making and forces us to confront uncomfortable truths.
History is not just what we remember. It is what we teach. And if our schools, our national parks, and our public institutions begin to erase those who resisted, we risk raising generations that don’t understand what freedom truly cost—or who paid the price.
Public Education Is the Next Battleground
These attacks are not confined to historical websites. They are being codified into law through executive orders that:
- Ban DEI in teacher prep programs
- Defund multicultural education
- Target libraries and museums with “anti-American” labels
- Scrutinize AP African American Studies and ethnic studies programs
- Limit how race, gender, and inequality are discussed in public schools
Educators are being forced to choose between telling the truth and keeping their jobs. Students are being denied the right to learn their own histories. And communities are being gaslit into believing that “unity” requires forgetting the very struggles that made progress possible.
The Stakes Are Too High to Stay Silent
We cannot afford to be passive. We cannot allow our heroes to be erased from memory and replaced with palatable, whitewashed narratives. We must resist every executive order, every curriculum restriction, and every attempt to rewrite the past in favor of a myth.
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer.” — Harriet Tubman
Let us dream—and act—boldly.
Let us teach the truth in our classrooms.
Tell it in our art.
Demand it from our elected officials.
And protect it in our institutions.
What You Can Do
- Call your representatives and demand that they investigate the changes to the National Park Service website and hold the Department of the Interior accountable.
- Share Tubman’s real story—in churches, in schools, in homes, and online.
- Support Black educators, leaders, and scholars who are under attack for telling the truth.
- Show up—at protests, at school board meetings, and at the ballot box.
We’ve been here before. When Jackie Robinson’s story was erased, we fought back—and won.
Now, it’s Harriet’s turn. We must not let this revisionism stand.
Because if we allow this to happen again and again, we won’t just lose individual heroes—we’ll lose the very power that their legacies offer us.
And that, more than anything, is what some politicians want the most.
📚 Read more:
➡️ Jackie Robinson Erased and Brought Back
➡️ Public Education in Danger: Five Executive Orders You Need to Know
✊🏽 #CloakingInequity #HandsOffHistory #HarrietTubman #JackieRobinson #BlackResistance #SayHerName