National Park Service removes references to Harriet Tubman from ‘Underground Railroad' webpage
An image of and quote from Harriet Tubman have been removed from a National Parks webpage about the 'Underground Railroad,' following several prominent changes to government websites under the Trump administration.
The National Parks Service webpage for the 'Underground Railroad' used to lead with a quote from Tubman, the railroad's most famous 'conductor', a comparison on the Wayback Machine between the webpage on January 21 and March 19 shows. Both the quote and an image of Tubman have since been removed, along with several references to 'enslaved' people and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
The Washington Post first reported on the changes. The webpage now leads with commemorative stamps of various civil rights leaders with text including the phrase 'Black/White Cooperation.' Whereas previously, the article started with a description of enslaved peoples' efforts to free themselves and the organization of the Underground Railroad after the Fugitive Slave Act, the article now starts with two paragraphs that emphasize the 'American ideals of liberty and freedom' and do not specifically mention slavery.
Tubman's removal from the 'Underground Railroad' page 'is both offensive and absurd,' Fergus Bordewich, a historian and the author of a book about the Underground Railroad, told CNN Sunday. He described the new webpage as 'diminished in value by its brevity.'
'To oversimplify history is to distort it,' Bordewich went on. 'Americans are not infants: they can handle complex and challenging historical narratives. They do not need to be protected from the truth.'
Janell Hobson, a professor of women's studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, described Tubman as 'one of our greatest American heroes and definitely the greatest liberator in this nation' in an email to CNN.
'I hope that National Parks Service realize they owe it to her and other heroes like her to stand in the truth of what this history has been,' she said.
There is a separate National Park Service webpage dedicated to Harriet Tubman, who was born into slavery in Maryland before fleeing to Philadelphia. She returned to Maryland over a dozen times to help free other slaves, guiding them through the 'Underground Railroad,' a secret network of routes and safe houses. The park service webpage on Tubman does not seem to have been changed since January 28, 2025.
CNN has reached out to the National Park Service for comment.
The past few months have also seen other controversial changes to government websites as the Trump administration enacts a campaign to eliminate DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion. The removal of the words 'transgender' and 'queer' from a National Parks Service webpage about Stonewall Monument in New York City triggered protests in February.
In March, the Pentagon seemingly took down a page about Jackie Robinson, the trailblazing baseball player who became the first Black Major League Baseball athlete in the modern era, before restoring it.
Articles about topics seemingly unrelated to DEI – including the Holocaust, cancer awareness, and sexual assault – have also been removed from Pentagon webpages. Pentagon officials were instructed to search for keywords like 'racism,' 'ethnicity,' 'LGBTQ,' 'history' and 'first' when identifying articles and photos to remove, multiple defense officials previously told CNN.
In his second term, President Donald Trump has taken multiple steps to take control of American cultural and historical institutions, gutting the board of trustees at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC and targeting the Smithsonian Institution in an executive order in late March.
In his order, Trump specifically identified the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Smithsonian American Art Museum as carrying exhibits and promoting language he deemed inappropriate.
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