On March 27, President Donald Trump released an executive order, misnamed “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which advances pseudo-scientific ideas on race, and attacks funding for programs and institutions that preserve and steward our country’s history.
Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, issued the following statement in response to the order:
“This latest executive order, cloaked in the guise of preserving ‘objective’ history, is in fact a direct attack on institutions designed to tell the truth about our nation’s history. Of the many missives coming from the administration, this latest tactic of using our nation’s cherished national museums and monuments for ideological indoctrination is one of the most jarring and dangerous attempts to erase the true history that shapes our nation. By hiding our history, the order seeks to prevent us from understanding and addressing society’s most pressing issues and diminishes the accomplishments of those who fought to make our future better than our past.
“History warns us against the dangers of diluting facts or rewriting truth for political gain. However, yesterday’s executive order echoes the same indoctrination schemes we have seen in some of the darkest chapters of human history. It bears chilling parallels to the tactics of Nazi Germany, where history and cultural institutions were manipulated to serve the fascist goals of that regime and advance a narrative of racial superiority. The order even goes so far as to suggest that race is ‘a biological reality’ — reviving a discredited pseudo-scientific notion that has historically been used to dehumanize Black people and other marginalized groups.
“The threatened rewriting of history and hostile takeover of the institutions that house the truths of American history has undeniably clear goals: erase our shared history and censor the truth. Understanding the moments when we have fallen short as a nation and worked to be better makes us stronger as a nation, not weaker. This unconstitutional attempt to turn the American people away from the facts of racism and discrimination propagates a dangerous revisionism that we cannot allow to spread unchecked.”
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Equal Protection Initiative seeks to defend and advance the proper interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause and anti-discrimination law so that we can all continue to advance equal opportunity for all. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
