National Park Service restores Harriet Tubman feature on webpage after criticism over removal
A National Park Service webpage about the Underground Railroad has been restored to its original state months after it was changed to remove abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman from the top of the page.
The "What is the Underground Railroad?" page featured a photo of and quote from Tubman as leading elements on the page, followed by text explaining the significance of the Underground Railroad in transporting enslaved people to freedom and out of the South. The page was altered to remove Tubman in early February, per data from the Wayback Machine, replacing the image with a collage of Postal Service Underground Railroad commemorative stamps highlighting "Black/White Cooperation."
The change also altered the text to market the Underground Railroad as a bridge for "the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality" rather than "resistance to enslavement through escape and flight."
Mentions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 were also deleted before the restoration, along with historical cards of enslaved peoples fighting to reach freedom and a mural of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first Black regiment made up of those raised in the North. All of these elements have since been added back in their original states.
"Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service's website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership. The webpage was immediately restored to its original content," the NPS said in a Tuesday statement to ABC News.
The NPS is a bureau of the Department of the Interior, and two anonymous NPS employees told the Washington Post that Interior Department political appointees directed senior career officials to identify webpages to change, which were then sent to management for consideration amid the Trump administration's push against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. However, the employees told the Washington Post that they didn't know whether the recommendations were the direct reason for any webpage removals.
"The removal of Harriet Tubman's image and quote from the National Park Service's 'Underground Railroad' webpage is concerning," civil rights attorney Ben Crump posted on X while Tubman was still scrubbed from the page. "Tubman's legacy and the resistance of enslaved people must never be diminished. We must stand in the truth of our history!"
Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., argued the removal was "an attack on truth, an attempt to erase history that would help us improve society today, a refusal to be uncomfortable and engaged in changing harmful policies and practices."
The Washington Post investigation published on Friday pointed out these changes and others from the NPS. Its analysis of thousands of NPS webpages found several changes in language to rebrand racially charged moments in American history or remove references to slavery entirely.
A page on Benjamin Franklin's views on slavery was taken down, and some mentions of prominent figures such as Thomas Stone owning enslaved people were omitted.
This comes amid a larger effort from the Trump administration to purge DEI from government webpages.
Last month, the Department of Defense said it "mistakenly removed" Jackie Robinson's Army service as well as other content, including a page that honored the 60th anniversary of U.S. troops, in its effort to remove DEI from its sites.
Actress Viola Davis, who is set to play Tubman in an untitled HBO biopic, took to Instagram on Monday to share comment on the situation, saying the edits were "downplaying Harriet Tubman and slavery."
"Really?!! Harriet Tubman?!!" she wrote in the caption. "Elevating this icon of American History is being diminished?!!! Erased?! Man.....Lord....give us STRENGTH!!!!"
