ASALH leads resistance to attacks on Smithsonian and U.S. history

By Karsonya Wise Whitehead

For 110 years, ASALH has worked to create and share knowledge about Black History. We founded Black History Month, and we have always acted as a bridge between scholars and the wider world. As the president of ASALH, I understand that we are also tasked with the job of making sure that our history is preserved, protected and promoted and when this is being threatened or when it is at risk of distortion or erasure, then our job is to sound the alarm.

Earlier this week, the president, on his social media platform, wrote a post openly attacking the Smithsonian Institution museums, asserting they were “OUT OF CONTROL.” He wrongly claimed that they only focused on “how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.” He also noted that “I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities, where tremendous progress has been made. This country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE.” As a follow-up, the White House released a directive calling for a full review of all archival materials to determine if said materials are aligned with the president’s plan to “Restore Truth and Sanity to American History” (Executive Order 14235). This plan aims to remove any exhibit or artifact that does not align with his definition of American exceptionalism.

When the executive order was first released, ASALH felt compelled to speak out and partnered with other civil rights organizations, including the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), to lead the National Week of Action’s “Hands Off Our History” rally. We met in Washington, D.C., and rallied around the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (our beloved Blacksonian) to call attention to what was happening and what people needed to do next. We also laid out our North Star, providing our members with a blueprint for daily acts of resistance because we knew, like Toni Morrison once told us, “The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.”

As you may be aware, the first steps have already been taken. The first occurred in 2017 with the whitelash election; then in 2020 with the rise in anti-Blackness and White supremacy after the murder of George Floyd. The right wing conservatives took a third step in 2023 with the banning of over 10,000 books, a majority of which featured people and characters of color. And, a fourth step occurred earlier this year when 47 issued multiple executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in higher education, medicine, K-12th grade history courses, research and science—to name just a few steps in the race toward fascism. The president and MAGA are now in full stride as they speed to defund libraries, whitewash history curricula, zero-base the Department of Education, position the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and dismantle the Black middle class. (It is not lost on us that the work that was done to push and remove 300,000 Black women from the workforce was deliberate and intentional. It is also another step.)

These steps are veiled attempts to rewrite and distort the narrative by removing any mention of the racist actions, words and deeds that have shaped American history. This regime is actively seeking to erase the lived experiences of Black people.

But, we knew that this moment would come. We have been preparing, and we are ready. Our work to uphold the legacies of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ella Baker, Constance Baker Motley, Derrick Bell, Harriet Tubman, Paul Robeson, Dorothy I. Height, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Vincent Harding and Barbara Jordan, among many others, demand that we stay ready. Our work as truth seekers obliges us to “speak the truth to the people” and demands that we stay ready. Our work to preserve the history of our experience and plant the seeds for future knowledge and resistance to sprout demands that we stay ready.

ASALH stands in fierce opposition to this latest directive and all efforts to erase or distort our history, to silence our voices and to minimize our story. The history of the United States is written in blood and tears, in cross burnings and lynchings, in protesting and picketing, in voting and in protesting, in fear and in terror, and in fighting for justice and for peace. Our history is both brutal and ugly and poignant and beautiful—from the forced arrival of our ancestors to these shores to the Black men who fought and died during the Revolutionary War; from the two planned destructions of Fort Mose, the Seminole Wars, the Trail of Tears, American enslavement, the Civil War to the vicious violent overthrow of Reconstruction; from the terrorism of lynching and racial pogroms to the work that was done in the streets, in the courts and through the Executive Branch; from Elizabeth Key’s 1656 case, Plessey v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968; from the Civil Rights Movement and the fight for Black Power to the work that was done during Black Lives Matter to reform community policing; and, through the work to stop the domestic terrorism of the KKK, racialized mass shooters, and now ICE. These are just a few snapshot moments from our collective stories, and these stories matter. Our shared histories matter. Our voices and our sacrifices matter.

As ASALH continues to prepare for our Annual Conference in Atlanta (Sept. 24-28, 2025), we want to utilize every available opportunity to organize and prepare ourselves to counter his next steps. We must remember this is not the end of our fight, nor is it the beginning. It is merely a continuation of the work we have been doing as an organization since 1915 and as a people since we first arrived here. Our work, like the struggle, continues.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.