Trump orders ‘ideology' removed from Smithsonian. What about NC sit-ins exhibit?
President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month putting Vice President JD Vance and an attorney in charge of finding and 'removing improper ideology' from monuments, museums and the National Zoo overseen by the Department of Interior.
On Thursday, the news outlet BlackPressUSA published a report that an exhibit from a historic moment in the Civil Rights Movement, Greensboro's F.W. Woolworth Company lunch counter, fell victim to Trump's order.
BlackPressUSA stated that 'Trump officials are sending back exhibit items to their rightful owners and dismantling them — starting with the 1960 Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in exhibit.'
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington has a section of the original lunch counter on display. The other section is housed in Greensboro at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington is home to two of the lunch counter's stools.
Linda St. Thomas, chief spokeswoman for the Smithsonian Institution, told McClatchy in an email Friday that the lunch counter is not at risk.
'The Greensboro, NC, lunch counter is not leaving the Smithsonian,' St. Thomas wrote. 'It is on display at the National Museum of American History where it has been for many years.'
The BlackPressUSA article specifically mentioned that the exhibit was leaving the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
'The National Museum of African American History and Culture also has two stools from the original counter; one is on exhibit at all times, the other rotates in so that they can be properly preserved,' St. Thomas wrote. 'Bottom line is that no artifacts have left either museum.'
Cynetra McMillian, public affairs specialist for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, told McClatchy Friday, 'Since the opening, one stool has always been and continues to be on display.'
Late Friday, the news outlet updated its website and social media to say that the Smithsonian says the lunch counter exhibit will now remain at the museum.
The lunch counter took its place in American history in 1960.
It was then that four Black students from N.C. A&T State University took seats at the counter in downtown Greensboro, despite the restaurant being segregated. When they were refused service, they wouldn't get up. And they would come back daily until Woolworth changed its segregation policies.
Their decision helped launch the Civil Rights Movement across the South that led to the end of legal segregation.
Other museums across the country have portions of lunch counters from other sit-ins that were spurred by the Greensboro Four's actions.
BlackPressUSA's article also reported that the museum was returning a Bible and one of the country's first books on racism to the Rev. Amos Brown, a civil rights leader and pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.
'The Bible and book belong to Rev. Brown of San Francisco who generously loaned them to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture for an exhibition,' St. James told McClatchy. 'The loan agreement has expired and the items are being returned to the owner which is standard museum practice. The curator called and wrote to Rev. Brown.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
11 minutes ago
Judge blocks private prison operator from housing ICE detainees at shuttered Kansas center
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- A judge on Wednesday barred a major U.S. private prison operator from housing immigrants facing possible deportation in a shuttered Kansas City area detention center unless it can get a permit from frustrated city officials. Leavenworth County Judge John Bryant agreed after a packed hearing to grant the city of Leavenworth's request for a temporary restraining order against CoreCivic, one of the nation's largest private prison operators. CoreCivic had claimed in legal filings that halting the opening of the 1,033-bed facility on the northwest outskirts of the Kansas City area would cost it $4.2 million in revenue each month. City officials said they anticipated the arrival of detainees apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was imminent under a Trump administration crackdown on illegal immigration. Leavenworth isn't the first city where controversy has surrounded the reopening of a private prison as an ICE detention facility. In Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka sued the state's top federal prosecutor on Tuesday over his recent arrest on a trespassing charge at a federal immigration detention facility in that state, saying the Trump-appointed attorney had pursued the case out of political spite. Scott Peterson, the city manager for Leavenworth, said he didn't know if the case in Kansas marked the first time a municipality had prevailed in court. 'I would point out that maybe the reason we have seen some success here today is this is not about immigration,' Peterson said. 'This is not about private prisons. This is about land use.' In late 2021, CoreCivic stopped housing pretrial detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service in the Leavenworth facility after then-President Joe Biden called on the Justice Department to curb the use of private prisons. In the months leading up to the closure, the American Civil Liberties Union and federal public defenders urged the White House to speed up the closure, citing inmate rights violations there along with stabbings, suicides and even one homicide. But with President Donald Trump pushing for mass deportations under a wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigration, the facility that CoreCivic now calls the Midwest Regional Reception Center is in demand again. It is located just 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of the Kansas City International Airport. As part of his crackdown, Trump has vowed to sharply increase detention beds nationwide from the budgeted 41,000 beds this year. Tennessee-based CoreCivic initially applied for a special use permit from the city in February but then withdrew that application the next month, arguing in court filings that it didn't need the permit and that the process would take too long. 'It became clear to CoreCivic that there was not a cooperative relationship,' said Taylor Concannon Hausmann, an attorney for the private prison operator, speaking in court. The city sued CoreCivic, the lawsuit claiming that CoreCivic impeded the city police force's ability to investigate sexual assaults and other violent crimes. The lawsuit contended that the permitting process was needed to safeguard itself from future problems. 'Just follow our rules," an attorney for the city, Joe Hatley, said in court. 'Go get a permit.' The first version of the lawsuit, filed in March in federal court, was tossed out in May on technical grounds. But Bryant sided with Hatley in the case refiled the same month in state court, finding that the proper procedures weren't followed. Concannon Hausmann, CoreCivic's attorney, declined to comment as the crowd filtered out of the courtroom Wednesday. Norman Mallicoat held a sign reading, 'CoreCivic Doesn't Run Leavenworth' as he left. 'I see this as basically a large company trying to bully a small city into getting what it wants and not having to follow the rules and ordinances of the city,' Mallicoat said.
CBS News
12 minutes ago
- CBS News
South Florida cities acknowledge contributions of domestic workers
In a landmark move, the cities of Pembroke Pines and Hollywood have, for the first time, issued official proclamations recognizing the invaluable contributions of domestic workers. Florida Rising, a statewide organization dedicated to building power in Black and brown communities, advocated for the predominantly immigrant community and many undocumented workers who are the backbone of the domestic workforce. These proclamations mark a significant turning point in the long and often invisible history of domestic work in Florida. For generations, domestic workers - overwhelmingly women of color and immigrant women - have labored without formal recognition, often facing challenging working conditions and lacking basic protections. Their work, essential to the functioning of countless Floridian households and the state's economy, has historically been undervalued and overlooked. Currently, many domestic workers are concerned because of the radical anti-immigrant wave affecting them and their families. "This is a monumental first step towards acknowledging the dignity and immense societal contribution of domestic workers in Pembroke Pines and Hollywood," said Ysa Osses, Latinx Statewide Constituency Director at Florida Rising. "For too long, these hardworking women, many of whom are immigrant and undocumented members of our communities, have been in the shadows. These proclamations finally bring their essential labor into the light." The history of domestic work in Florida, as in much of the United States, is deeply intertwined with legacies of racial and gender inequity. Nationally, the domestic worker rights movement has fought for decades to secure basic labor protections, fair wages, and respect for a workforce excluded from many of the foundational labor laws of the 20th century.
15 minutes ago
El Salvador deportees are entitled to due process, judge rules
A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to give the hundreds of men deported to El Salvador in March under the Alien Enemies Act the right to challenge their detentions as unlawful. In a 69-page order issued Wednesday, Judge James Boasberg gave the Trump administration until June 11 to come up with a plan to allow the men currently detained at El Salvador's notorious CECOT mega-prison to practice their due process rights. "In short, the Government must facilitate the Class's ability to seek habeas relief to contest their removal under the Act. Exactly what such facilitation must entail will be determined in future proceedings," Boasberg wrote. "Although the Court is mindful that such a remedy may implicate sensitive diplomatic or national-security concerns within the exclusive province of the Executive Branch, it also has a constitutional duty to provide a remedy that will 'make good the wrong done,'" he wrote. In what could portend the next chapter in a legal battle that has ensnared the Trump administration for nearly three months, Judge Boasberg reached the conclusion that the men -- regardless of their alleged criminal status -- deserve the right to challenge the government's claim. "Defendants plainly deprived these individuals of their right to seek habeas relief before their summary removal from the United States -- a right that need not itself be vindicated through a habeas petition. Perhaps the President lawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act. Perhaps, moreover, Defendants are correct that Plaintiffs are gang members," Boasberg wrote. "But -- and this is the critical point -- there is simply no way to know for sure, as the CECOT Plaintiffs never had any opportunity to challenge the Government's say-so," he wrote. The Trump administration touched off a legal battle in March when it invoked the Alien Enemies Act -- an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process -- to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States. An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged that "many" of the men deported on March 15 lack criminal records in the United States -- but said that "the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose" and "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile."
