Trump's DEI crackdown is changing MLK Day

Across government

Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office last summer. It had been there since 2009.

Following Trump's signing of a sweeping executive order overhauling federal DEI programs last January, the Defense Intelligence Agency ordered a pause of all activities and events related to MLK Day.

• The DIA also paused programming for Black History Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day and other "special observances" to comply with Trump's order, per NBC News.

In response to a request for comment, the White House directed Axios to Trump's March executive order.

National Parks

Free entry to national parks will now be granted on Trump's birthday but no longer on MLK Day or Juneteenth, the White House announced last month.

Beyond its elimination of a "fee-free" MLK Day, the Trump administration is administering an extensive purge of exhibits across the nation's parks that includes a substantial removal of materials related to MLK, said Kristen Brengel, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association.

• The Department of the Interior last May required every park to conduct a review of "public monuments, memorials, statues, or similar properties" complying with a Trump executive order targeting "race-centered ideology" and "narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive."

• The DOI's order said that it would flag items for removal that violated the executive order. The NPCA has a database of items flagged by the DOI based on reports from current National Parks Service employees, which Axios has viewed. Those items include exhibits, films, books, and youth-oriented materials such as junior ranger pamphlets.

The DOI identified "about 80" items for removal at the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, where King led a march in support of the Voting Rights Act, according to Brengel.

• Brengel said that materials related to slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow were also flagged, adding that they are featured at a diverse range of parks, including the National Mall, the Louis and Clark National Historic Trail, and Revolutionary War sites.
• "When you look at the totality of everything identified throughout the parks system, African American history is being targeted more than anything," she said.

Flashback: Trump's order also targeted the Smithsonian Institution, launching an ongoing war with its museums to change its exhibits.

• Such changes include the removal of a Bible that civil rights activist Rev. Amos Brown took to demonstrations with MLK.

Brengel said that this amounts to "censorship" that "should bother every American."

• The federal government is targeting "science, women's history, African American history, [and] indigenous history" in parks, she said.
• "The parks service has it in our mission to teach about history and use historically accurate materials, and this contradicts the very mission of the parks service."

The Interior Department last month also ordered the parks to remove any merchandise related to DEI from its gift shops.

• An Interior Department spokesperson told Axios: "The National Park Service is conducting a review of retail items to ensure our gift shops remain neutral spaces that serve all visitors."

Schools

Educators and advocates told Axios that in his second term, Trump has strengthened the challenges to educators across the country.

Fedrick Ingram, Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, said "there is a chilling difference" between Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0's targeting of Black history in schools.

By the numbers: Republican lawmakers in 44 states have introduced or implemented legislation targeting critical race theory after attacks by Trump during his first administration, according to Education Week.

• Following Trump's directive last year targeting DEI, at least 12 states passed anti-DEI legislation, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education analysis.

Catch up quick: During Trump's first term in office, MLK saw challenges in classrooms in states like Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 signed a bill removing a requirement for King's "I Have a Dream" speech to be taught in public schools.
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration in 2022 fought to eliminate mentions of MLK from elementary school standards as well.
• In Tennessee, the far-right group Moms for Liberty in 2021 sought to remove a book about MLK from a school district's curriculum.
• A spokesperson for M4L clarified that the group felt the book promoted CRT, and emphasized its support for MLK and his inclusion in schools in general.

ReNika Moore, Director of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program, said that "the president's actions is "threatening erasure ... across a range of fronts, from Martin Luther King to other significant Black historical figures."

Directives like these mean that educators are second-guessing topics they can teach, including figures like MLK.

• "Teachers are concerned about whether they will be penalized or whether their licenses will be threatened," Moore said. "It's creating an environment for educators where you are not supposed to talk about Martin Luther King, or present a racially inclusive curriculum, and you do so at your own peril."

Jeff Wensing, Vice President of the Ohio Education Association, said that he's seen the Trump administration's directives impact higher education.

• Indiana University in Indianapolis, for instance, this month cancelled an annual dinner in honor of MLK hosted by the Black Student Union, Insider Higher Ed reported.
• In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Indiana University directed Axios to other MLK events around campus and at other IU campuses.

Zoom out: King III, who has spend the last few decades working to preserve his parents' legacy with his wife, Arndrea Waters King, said that the administration's moves "are a clear attempt to sanitize history and limit whose stories are told."

• "This opens the door to challenges around how my parents and their work are remembered."

The bottom line: "Efforts to erase these lessons, whether in schools or national park gift shops, do more than remove books," King III says.

• "They make it harder to teach the whole truth and threaten the progress we have made toward justice and inclusion."

Go deeper: America stares down erasure of Black history and progress

Editor's note: This story was updated with a response from the White House.