The National Park Service has restored references to abolitionist Harriet Tubman to its webpage on the Underground Railroad after initially defending the removal.
“Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service’s website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership. The webpage was immediately restored to its original content,” a spokesperson for NPS told The Hill.
Over the weekend, the webpage had been changed to remove a prominent photo of Tubman from the webpage dedicated to the system of trails, rivers and canals used by enslaved Africans to reach freedom.
Tubman's photo was replaced with a series of commemorative postal stamps of those who escaped or helped others to escape slavery, including Tubman’s stamp.
The webpage’s introduction was also changed to describe the Underground Railroad as “one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement” that “bridged the divides of race.” The phrase “enslaved African Americans” was changed to “enslaved workers,” and in some cases references to slavery were completely removed.
A spokesperson for NPS initially defended the edits in a statement to The Hill.
“We have dozens of pages about Harriet Tubman celebrating and memorializing her impressive role in American history,” the spokesperson said. “The idea that a couple web edits somehow invalidate the National Park Service’s commitment to telling complex and challenging historical narratives is completely false and belies the extensive websites, social media posts, and programs we offer about Harriet Tubman specifically and Black History as a whole.”
The changes came amid a sprawling Trump administration push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion from federal institutions. And it's not the first time pages have been restored after public outcry.
The military said it “accidentally” removed webpages, later restored, dedicated to Jackie Robinson; Colin Powell; Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers, a Black recipient of the Medal of Honor; the Navajo Code Talkers and Japanese Americans.
Some Democrats and advocates said the removals were intentional, particularly after President Trump's executive order promising to remove “divisive narratives” from institutions like the Smithsonian.
“’Sorry’ is meaningful when you don’t have the intention of it happening again,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recently told The Hill. “And the problem is, this keeps on happening. It’s much more difficult to give people grace when you understand that there is an intentionality that’s happening around all of this.”
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