The Trump administration’s campaign to whitewash American history and attack diversity initiatives has impacted various federal facilities and left a variety of private organizations deprived of federal funding. Now, one museum is pushing back in court, arguing that the administration is discriminating against it and other organizations on the bases of race and viewpoints.
Underground Railroad museum claims discrimination in grant cancellation
The Underground Railroad Education Center, located in Albany, New York, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a $250,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that was canceled last year. The suit, filed with the District Court for the Northern District of New York, states that the grant was canceled along with 1,400 other grants to various entities, in response to President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. The cancellations, the suit alleges, amount to racial and viewpoint discrimination in violation of both the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. The center is looking to have its funding restored.
Lawyer accuses administration of ‘explicitly erasing things associated with the Black race’
There was “just no legitimate basis” for canceling the center’s grant, attorney Nina Loewenstein told NBC News. The administration is “just explicitly erasing things associated with the Black race,” Loewenstein said. She and other attorneys affiliated with Lawyers for Good Government, which is providing free legal services to defend human and civil rights, allege that “numerous statements of the current Executive Branch leadership reflect overt and coded racism supporting white supremacy and denigrating Black history in America,” and that the administration’s canceling of federal funding because of these motivations have impacted thousands of organizations.
Trump executive orders followed by whitewashing of history
The funding cuts faced by the Underground Railroad Education Center represent one potential impact of a series of executive orders and other actions taken by Trump since he returned to office in 2025. Based on the president’s orders, various federal facilities and institutions have faced whitewashing and censorship, with information about Black history, racial oppression and other topics being removed or flagged for review at Smithsonian museums and facilities operated by the National Park Service. The National Park Service changes include sanitizing descriptions of slavery and downplaying the Underground Railroad. Even facilities outside of the U.S., such as a European cemetery for American war veterans, have had information about Black history removed in the wake of Trump’s orders. Some of these changes have already been challenged in court; for example, the removal of information on slavery from President’s House Site in Philadelphia was reversed after the city sued to have the material restored to the National Park Service location.
Now, a New York-based museum focused on efforts to escape slavery is fighting back against what it sees as a racist agenda by the Trump administration. The suit, which is being presented as highlighting thousands of similar discriminatory acts, could be a significant step toward pushing back against Trump’s attempts to rewrite American history.