The current secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie G. Bunch III, was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, who has forcefully advocated for what he describes as “nuance and complexity” in history, and warned of continuing backlash against civil rights progress.
Mr. Trump’s order criticized the African American Museum, saying it had “proclaimed that ‘hard work,’ ‘individualism,’ and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture.’” In 2020, the museum did include a worksheet with those claims as part of a new Talking About Race online portal. But after it drew criticism, Mr. Bunch ordered it removed.
“I think the document itself was wrong and flawed,” he told a Congressional oversight committee in 2023. “I do think, however, it’s important for the Smithsonian to help the country grapple with questions of race, so I’m not going to run away from that. But I agree with you very much that that document is not the kind of document that should be at the Smithsonian.”
In the executive order, Mr. Trump claimed that the American Women’s History Museum, which is under development, “plans to celebrate male athletes participating in women’s sports.” The museum’s collections and digital exhibits include material about trans women, including the activist Sylvia Rivera, who helped lead the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, and the professional skateboarder Cher Strauberry, who donated one of her skate decks to the museum. But leaders have not released plans for the physical museum, which is still seeking a permanent space on the National Mall.
Laura Raicovich, a former museum executive who wrote a book on the relationship between art, protest and politics, said that the new executive order was a powerful lesson in how governments seek to shape history.
“The order itself is a clear example of the weaponization of language by the administration to undo the necessary historical correctives undertaken by knowledge institutions in recent years,” she said.
