Protestors rally to support the national African American museum and Black history

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Updated May 3, 2025, 8:21 p.m. ET


WASHINGTON – Hundreds of people joined a rally on May 3 to show support for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the wake of threats by the Trump administration and others that civil rights activists said aim to erase Black history.

Organizers planned the rally after President Donald Trump indicated in a recent executive order that he wanted to curtail "narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive."

The #HandsOffOurHistory rally kicked off on the steps of City Hall before the crowd marched three blocks to the museum on the National Mall. Speakers, including faith leaders, civil rights activists and members of Black sororities and fraternities, urged the crowd to push back against efforts to restrict the teaching of Black history and threats against institutions that showcase that history.

“We will not be erased,’’ said Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a civic engagement organization. “This is an assault on our very existence.”

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/03/smithsonian-african-american-history-museum-black-culture/83432491007/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. You can never change history.

I used to respect historians but now realize they had anchor points and biases just like the politicians. Was it really this bad 30 years ago? Doesn't seem that way. Now we have the alt-right version of everything.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. "Was it really this bad 30 years ago? Doesn't seem that way."

It most certainly was that bad as many school systems were attempting to actually get curricula updated to include black/African historical contributions, not just in the U.S., but around the world, and that had been dubbed "Multiculturalism", with a subcategory of "Afrocentrism". That alone caused heads to explode leading to research into why this type of resistance to presenting a comprehensive view of history keeps happening over and over and over (eventually dubbed "Critical Race Theory", a term I had never heard of until recently as it wasn't really "named", but covers attempts to uncover and describe structural and institutionalized racism).

[bucolic_frolic]

3. You're right, but it means all the liberal historians had their biases too.

And there wasn't the sheer volume of BS from the right. They think Bill O'Reilly is an historian.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "They think Bill O'Reilly is an historian."

And Gingrich thought of himself as a master historian but he was nothing more than a pseudo one instead!

[surfered]

5. ...

[Amaryllis]

6. Glad to see the HAnds Off theme is continuing after the April 5 protests. It applies to just about everything Trump is

doing and has a strong resonance.

[Linda ladeewolf]

7. If anyone is interested

Project Gutenberg has a whole list of books on black history. I read this earlier and looked because I fear they will try to get rid of all these books, so I’m downloading all I can.

[SunSeeker]

8. This is such a magnificent museum. So glad I had a chance to see it last summer.

It does such an impressive job of documenting slavery. I guess that is its sin in the eyes of the right wing.

[NotHardly]

9. Shame on MAGA & Trump for trying to erase history & people, shame!