We Must Preserve the National Museum of African American History and Culture — as it Was Envisioned

In the Civil Rights exhibit featuring the story of kidnapped, mutilated, and murdered Emmett Till at the National Museum of African American History and Culture(NMAAHC), I broke down and wept. Tears of frustration, tears of hot rage. “We’ve already done this,” I hiccupped, referencing the many movements from Reconstruction to Civil Rights that Black people led to loosen racism’s noose and demand their freedom.

A friend rubbed my back as groups of high schoolers milled around. The teens were gangly and lost without their phones in the only area in the museum where technology is banned to ensure decorum and reverence for the murdered boy. Disturbed by the exhibit and unsure of what to do with their hands, they lumbered through the rooms as they attempted to process the story of a young man who could have been their brother, their cousin, their friend — someone who could have been them.

The NMAAHC, part of the Smithsonian Institution, is now in the crosshairs of Donald Trump. The name of Trump’s executive order, which calls for “revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology” is too vapid to repeat. Vacant of real meaning other than signaling yet another attempt to erase the history and contributions of people of color, it has sent a flurry of panic throughout communities of conscience. 

And it is what sent me on an Amtrak train from NYC to DC earlier this month to spend three days at the museum. I wanted to see the exhibits for myself before they are destroyed by people who are long on racial animus and short on facts. 

Tampering with historical truths is just a symptom of the disease infecting the Oval Office. Trump’s efforts to erase Black people start when we are in utero: According to the CDC, infant mortality rates per 100,000 are 10.9% for Blacks, against 4.5% of non-Hispanic whites. In New York, where I live, cuts in healthcare could result in 1.8 million of the current seven million Medicaid recipients losing their insurance. Some 1.5 million of the Medicaid-insured here are Blacks; much of critical prenatal care would evaporate under the cuts, possibly resulting in significantly more infant and mother mortality.

Slashing the Education Department will disproportionately affect Black and low-income people, removing anti-discrimination protections and ending or limiting student loans. And don’t forget the attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) — the new n-word — from college through employment.

The aggression on non-whites from the cradle to the grave has the intended effect: whiplash, anger, and confusion about which blow to fend off first. At the museum, I had several conversations with individuals about whether artifacts had been removed or any history altered in the narrative. Part of the power of racially biased actions is that they force people of color to make assumptions, including when they are unwarranted. Destabilization is the point.

The idea for the museum is decades old but began gaining steam in the late eighties under the guidance of Civil Rights icon John Lewis. In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed a commission and Congress passed the bill that gave birth to the NMAAHC. But like every major hard-won accomplishment by African Americans, there is a backlash. Stay in your place.

The friend who accompanied me, an educator, said that until our visit she did not know the extent of the slave rebellions, thought to be more than 250 between the 1600s and the Civil War. This is the best kind of win, underscoring why institutions like this must continue to exist as they were so carefully envisioned and crafted.

I left the NMAAHC walking a little taller, feeling proud of what Blacks have done to claim our God-ordained, rightful place as U.S. citizens. The history of triumph against the odds is rich; Black people have truly made a way out of no way, as the saying goes. 

I dedicate my own life to the memory of those whose blood paved the way for what we have today, from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, to that beautiful boy with the impish grin, Emmett Till, and those whose names we will never know.

I encourage every American to visit the treasure that is the NMAAHC. And if there are attempts to erase our history, African American history, American history, I encourage ordinary people to note the edits, and to project them on the walls of the very government buildings that were built with free African American labor.

Cheryl McCourtie, a writer living in the Bronx, has worked as a nonprofit fundraiser for institutions that include a museum, an MS grantmaking public charity, and several youth-development organizations.

This post appeared first on New York Amsterdam News and was republished on Word in Black on June 24, 2025.