House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is urging the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice John Roberts to reject an executive order from President Trump that called to restore “truth and sanity” to the Smithsonian Institution.
“It is imperative that you, along with your fellow Regents, continue the storied legacy of the Smithsonian that tells the American story honestly and completely,” Jeffries wrote in a letter to Roberts on Friday. “President Trump’s proclamation, which seeks to whitewash our history, is cowardly and unpatriotic. It must fail.”
Roberts by statute sits on the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents and serves as Chancellor of the Smithsonian.
“The Smithsonian attracts tens of millions of visitors a year and works with the finest subject matter experts in virtually every field. The fact that the Proclamation prominently singles out the National Museum of African American History and Culture speaks volumes about Donald Trump’s actual motivation,” Jeffries wrote to Roberts. “To be clear: Black history is American history. It cannot and will not be erased.”
Trump’s March executive order alleges the Smithsonian Institution “has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” Among other examples, it claims an exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture asserts “hard work,” “individualism,” and “the nuclear family” are parts of “white culture.”
It directed Vice President Vance, who sits on the Smithsonian board along with Roberts, to lead efforts to eliminate content from Smithsonian museums that do not align with the administration’s vision to “remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage.”
Jeffries compared the order to the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
“History is replete with dangerous efforts to manipulate cultural and historical narratives in order to consolidate power, including during twentieth-century regimes like those in the Soviet Union and 1930s Germany,” Jeffries wrote. “That is not America. I strongly urge you to reject the Proclamation targeting the Smithsonian and to uphold the 175-year tradition that has made the Institution the preeminent museum, educational and cultural system in the world.”
The next Smithsonian board meeting is scheduled for June 9.