After Edits to Underground Railroad Page, NPS Reverts

The National Park Service has restored a webpage about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad after Tubman's photo was removed, along with numerous mentions of slavery. The Washington Post described various website changes on Sunday, attributing these to strict interpretations of President Trump's executive orders to eliminate "divisive narratives" at the Smithsonian Institution and dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs more broadly. On a webpage for the Underground Railroad, a large photo of Tubman was replaced with postage stamps honoring five abolitionists, two of whom were white, and calling attention to "Black/white cooperation." (See more changes here.)

Political appointees at the Interior Department had asked officials to identify webpages in need of alteration, sources tell the Post, which found dozens of edits that "softened descriptions of some of the most shameful moments of the nation's past." "Some were edited to remove references to slavery, while some statements on the historic struggle of Black Americans for their rights were cut or altered, as were references to present-day echoes of racial division," the outlet reports. Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen accused Trump of trying to "rewrite" and "whitewash" the history of the Underground Railroad. Historian Fergus Bordewich described the edits as "offensive and absurd," per CNN.

In a Monday statement to CNN, an NPS rep said changes to the Underground Railroad page "were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership" and that the original content was "immediately restored." The page now appears as it did prior to Feb. 21. However, changes to other NPS webpages remain, per the Post. Americans "trust the NPS to offer an accurate and objective account, but when the NPS abuses that trust, it builds a false sense of our national identity that makes it difficult to deal with current realities," University of South Carolina law professor Derek W. Black tells the Post. (Pentagon websites honoring Black and Native American veterans previously vanished, though some have been restored.)