"Should the National Park Service discuss climate-change impacts or the fact that George Washington enslaved more than 100 fellow humans?
A nationwide campaign by the Trump administration to identify any park signage or materials that "inappropriately disparages Americans past or living" or "perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history" seemingly has created two pathways: one where visitors to the parks have demanded the administration be true to history and climate change, and another where Park Service personnel are being more circumspect in asking the administration to review interpretive materials in the parks.
"Book in the Washington Monument bookstore — discusses him as an enslaver," reads one of the notes Park Service personnel forwarded to the Interior Department for a decision on whether it disparages George Washington.
At Cane River Creole National Historical Park in Louisiana, a park system site that preserves and interprets "two of the most intact Creole cotton plantations in the United States," park staff sought guidance on language in an exhibit that included the names of enslavers and stated that those who escaped the plantation, when captured, "were interrogated, publicly whipped, and returned to their owners.""
Kurt Repanshek reports for National Parks Traveler July 22, 2025.
SEE ALSO:
"Trump Told Park Workers to Report Displays That ‘Disparage’ Americans. Here’s What They Flagged." (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/climate/trump-national-park-service-h...
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