Removed Harriet Tubman info from website was 'done without approval,' park service says
Removed Harriet Tubman info from website was 'done without approval,' park service says Harriet Tubman was an abolistionist and freedom seeker who led many others to safety in the north. Her photo and quote have been restored after being removed from a federal website.
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Who Was? Harriet Tubman
Learn more about the life of Harriet Tubman.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Information about Harriet Tubman has been restored to a National Park Service website about the Underground Railroad.
The National Park Service said Monday that a portrait and a quote from Tubman had been removed 'without approval.'
As the internet archive Wayback Machine shows, the website "What is the Underground Railroad" in February began with a picture and a quote from Tubman, the formerly enslaved woman who helped shepherd others to freedom in the North.
But by the end of February, the website heading showed a collection of stamps honoring those who helped people escape slavery, including Tubman among others. The website change was first reported in a Washington Post investigation.
In a statement sent to USA TODAY on Monday, the National Park Service said the change has now been undone.
'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,' a spokesperson said.
More: Jackie Robinson article removed from Department of Defense website has been restored
The NPS website was among several that were changed in the face of President Donald Trump's efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government.
NPS also edited out "transgender" from its website for the Stonewall National Monument, a small park dedicated to an LGBTQ+ uprising where trans activists were key players. Two Department of Defense websites dedicated to Black veterans, including baseball star Jackie Robinson and Medal of Honor recipient Army Maj. Gen. Charles Gavin Rogers were also temporarily taken offline before being restored.
Harriet Tubman picture had been removed, page's intro rewritten
Before the change was undone, the website no longer featured a quote from Tubman: "I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."
A comparative look on the Wayback Machine shows that the description of the Underground Railroad was pared down, especially in the introduction.
Originally, and currently, the introduction reads:
The Underground Railroad – the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, through the end of the Civil War – refers to the efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom by escaping bondage. Wherever slavery existed, there were efforts to escape. At first to maroon communities in remote or rugged terrain on the edge of settled areas and eventually across state and international borders. These acts of self-emancipation labeled slaves as "fugitives," "escapees," or "runaways," but in retrospect "freedom seeker " is a more accurate description. Many freedom seekers began their journey unaided and many completed their self-emancipation without assistance, but each subsequent decade in which slavery was legal in the United States, there was an increase in active efforts to assist escape.
That introduction had been replaced with the following, which notably didn't mention slavery:
The Underground Railroad – flourished from the end of the 18th century to the end of the Civil War, was one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement during its evolution over more than three centuries.The Underground Railroad bridged the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality; spanned State lines and international borders; and joined the American ideals of liberty and freedom expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the extraordinary actions of ordinary men and women working in common purpose to free a people.
Contributing: Fernando Cervantes.
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Federal panel rules in favor of state in Arkansas congressional redistricting lawsuit
(Getty Images) A three-judge federal court panel on Friday dismissed with prejudice a case challenging Arkansas' congressional district map. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by a group of voters and the Christian Ministerial Alliance. It claimed boundaries for Arkansas' 2nd Congressional District were racially gerrymandered and diluted the votes of Black Arkansans. Congressional and state legislative districts are redrawn after the U.S. Census each decade in a process known as redistricting. The goal is to create districts that contain roughly the same population. The Ministerial Alliance's lawsuit was one of four filed to challenge Arkansas' 2021 redistricting process and the only one that hadn't been dismissed. On Friday, U.S. Circuit Judge David Stras, U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. and U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. granted the state's motion for summary judgment, saying there was not enough evidence to support the plaintiffs' racial discrimination claims. 'Multiple Arkansas citizens challenge how the General Assembly redrew the state's congressional district lines,' Friday's order states. 'Although their allegations were plausible enough to survive a motion to dismiss [Docs. 35, 42], the evidence does not back up their claims of racial discrimination. For that reason, we grant summary judgment to Secretary of State John Thurston.' Thurston, who was secretary of state when the lawsuit was filed in 2023, was elected state treasurer in 2024 during a special election. The governor appointed Cole Jester to succeed Thurston. Previously, the entirety of Pulaski County was included in Arkansas' Second Congressional District, which is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. French Hill. During the 2021 redistricting process, Pulaski County was split between three congressional districts. Plaintiffs alleged the General Assembly considered racial data when redrawing district lines and unconstitutionally 'cracked' the Black voting bloc in southeast Pulaski County. The state's attorneys submitted a motion for summary judgment in favor of the state last October. According to Friday's order, the original complaint alleged two constitutional claims — one for racial gerrymandering under the Fourteenth Amendment and one for vote dilution under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The federal panel said race needed to be 'the predominant factor' motivating the General Assembly's decision and that awareness or acceptance of a 'racially disparate impact is not enough.' Three-judge panel hears arguments but doesn't rule in Arkansas redistricting lawsuit Creating 'an alternative map' is one way to prove redrawn boundaries were racially motivated, the panel said. However, that only works if the alternative map still accomplishes the Legislature's partisan goals. 'If it does not, then it just highlights how the pursuit of a nonracial aim — like retention, partisanship, or geography — could have led to an unintended racial disparity,' the panel wrote. 'All three of the plaintiffs' alternatives fall short in exactly this way.' Citing a U.S. Supreme Court reversal of a decision by a three-judge panel that found South Carolina had discriminated against Black voters in a 2023 redistricting lawsuit, Stras and his counterparts noted the high court emphasized that the courts must 'start with the presumption that the legislature acted in good faith.' 'Absent direct evidence of racial discrimination and with only weak circumstantial evidence supporting the plaintiffs' case, the presumption of legislative good faith tips the balance,' Stras wrote. That coupled with the fact that no alternative map achieves the General Assembly's goals with 'significantly greater racial balance,' meant the judges could not reasonably find that the plaintiffs had proved enough for their claim of racial gerrymandering to survive summary judgment, according to the ruling. The primary obstacle of the presumption of good faith holds true for the plaintiffs' vote-dilution claim, according to Friday's order. While the vote-dilution claim requires race to be a 'motivating factor' instead of the predominant one, the panel argued 'the plaintiffs do not have enough evidence to get there.' 'Most of what the plaintiffs offer are the materials we have already discussed: maps, statistics, and legislative history, none of which are enough to infer a racial motivation,' the panel wrote. The federal judges acknowledged as evidence a report from a university doctoral candidate that describes Arkansas' 'long history' with racism and resistance to Black voters, but wrote that much of that predates the passage of the 1964 Voting Rights Act. 'Even if he identifies a few scattered examples since then, none are 'reasonably contemporaneous with the challenged decision,' giving us little insight into what the General Assembly may have been thinking four years ago,' the panel wrote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
DOD allocates $25M for new fire station at YARS
VIENNA, Ohio (WKBN) – A Department of Defense funding plan shows that $25 million is being set aside for a new fire station at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna Township. The plan shows that money is being appropriated for FY 2025. It's part of the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act 2025, which was signed by President Donald Trump on March 15. Congressman Dave Joyce, 14th District, who is also a member of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, joined other Valley lawmakers in a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reiterating the importance of the funding for the fire station, specifically stating its importance as the facility transitions to the new C-130J. Congressman Michael Rulli, 6th District, said that the investment is significant and shows the importance of the air station. 'It ensures that Northeast Ohio remains not just relevant, but indispensable to our national security,' Rulli said. Last year, an $11 million project got started for a new front gate and visitor center at the air station. That project is being overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers. The air station began receiving the new C-130J in July 2024, with all aircraft to be delivered by the end of 2025. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
E&E News
an hour ago
- E&E News
NPS shutters DC's Dupont Circle for WorldPride festival
Celebrations for an international LGBTQ+ pride event in the nation's capital Saturday won't include a storied gathering spot for gay rights. The National Park Service closed Dupont Circle from Thursday to Sunday, for the duration of the WorldPride parade and street festival, at the request of the Park Police. Officials justified the decision by pointing to vandalism at the park in prior years. Kevin Griess, the superintendent for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, wrote in a record of decision Thursday that the Park Police believed the closure was needed to 'deter potential violence, reduce the risk of destructive acts and decrease the need for extensive law enforcement presences.' Advertisement The decision also underscores the park service's efforts to comply with President Donald Trump's 'Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful' mandate earlier this year that called for increased law enforcement presence on federal property in the city.
