by Jeroslyn JoVonn
April 11, 2025
Harriet Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece is talking out after the Nationwide Park Service downplayed the Underground Railroad on its web site
Harriet Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece is “devastated” by the Nationwide Park Service’s determination to melt its language concerning the Underground Railroad on its web site in February.
“It tore me aside once I noticed the information clip flash throughout my cellphone,” Rita Daniels informed NBC Information.
Among the many adjustments made to the webpage was the alternative of a big picture of Tubman with one that includes 5 postage stamps highlighting “Black/white cooperation” and that includes Tubman amongst abolitionists of each races. Moreover, the outline of the Underground Railroad was revised—shifting from “the resistance to enslavement by means of escape and flight” to language that downplays slavery, framing it as a substitute as a part of the “American civil rights motion” that bridged “the divides of race.”
The adjustments comply with an government order from President Donald Trump, which directed the Smithsonian Establishment to eradicate “divisive narratives.” A assessment of Nationwide Park Service web sites—one of many main businesses chargeable for preserving U.S. historical past—revealed that since Trump’s inauguration in late January, dozens of pages have been edited to downplay a few of the nation’s darkest historic moments.
Amongst them embody the company’s nods to Tubman—somebody Daniels has labored to correctly honor since discovering as a younger woman that she was associated to the civil rights icon. Rising up in Auburn, New York, the place Tubman settled in 1859 after escaping slavery in Maryland, Daniels remembers college supplies labeling Tubman as “a thief.”
“It mentioned she stole slaves, that there was a bounty on her head, these sort of issues,” she mentioned.
When Daniels shared what she had learn together with her mom, she realized the claims had been unfaithful and about their ancestral lineage. From that second on, Daniels has leaned on Tubman’s legacy for inspiration and devoted her life to preserving her story.
She co-authored a guide about Tubman’s life and based the Harriet Tubman Studying Middle to coach others concerning the true historical past and influence of the long-lasting freedom fighter. Now, witnessing the Nationwide Park Service seemingly dilute her aunt’s trailblazing legacy is deeply painful to Daniels.
“I used to be simply principally shocked and harm on the identical time,” she mentioned. “Most of my grownup life, I just about needed to be sure that folks know that her story is a crucial a part of Black historical past, which is American historical past.”
The replace was amongst quite a few adjustments made to authorities web sites amid the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to take away references to range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI).
“My query is: Why do they need to erase our Black historical past?” Daniels requested. “Why are we such a risk to sure Individuals? They need to take away or ignore very respected Individuals, Black Individuals? Why? The reply is racism.”
After information of the web site adjustments unfold, the Nationwide Park Service issued a press release on April 7, clarifying that the web page had been eliminated “with out approval” from senior management and that the unique model was “instantly restored.”
“That is the sort of influence Harriett Tubman had on many individuals, not simply me,” Daniels mentioned. “They usually need to erase that? No. She’s too essential to our household and to American historical past to simply be pushed apart. They’ll’t name what she’s completed DEI.”
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