Last month, my wife, young kids, and I went on a brief summer vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange, Georgia. That put us within striking distance of Montgomery, Alabama, and its famed Legacy Sites. The trio of living history spaces – the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park – all organized by the Equal Justice Initiative, are as informative as they are devastating.
One Thursday morning, we got up early and visited the sculpture park, where beautiful craftsmanship belies a sordid American tale.
My 7-year-old asked me a question that almost stopped me in my tracks: “Dad, why do those Black people have chains on them?”
Why We Wrote This
On a visit to the Equal Justice Initiative’s sculpture park, our columnist’s 7-year-old asked, “Dad, why do those Black people have chains on them?” Ken Makin thought about that trip after reading President Trump’s order of a review of America’s museums, most notably the Smithsonian.
I can understand why the temptation to tell a lie in that situation might feel better than the truth. I can assure you the folks who might do so don’t have Black children.
Having Black children means that in the absence of truth, misinformation and disinformation can and will flourish. I accompanied my son to a local history museum about six months ago that had a dedicated section to colonization, and a blurb about the Civil Rights Movement. America’s unwillingness to confront her past leads to supplemental, if not essential, instruction in nontraditional spaces.
Oftentimes, the classroom is at home. Or in an Alabama park. I told my son about slavery. Then, I told him about freedom.
I thought about our trip after reading President Donald Trump’s order on Truth Social of a review of America’s museums, most notably the Smithsonian: “The Museums throughout Washington, but [sic] all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’ The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been – Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
As a result, President Trump has called for an extensive review of U.S. museums, including private ones like the EJI, to “start the exact same process” that has been dictated in higher education. Ivy League schools such as Columbia, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania reached agreements to resolve federal investigations, agreeing to pay up to $200 million to the administration. Harvard is reportedly in talks to pay as much as $500 million to regain access to federal funds and end investigations.
A number of responses to Mr. Trump’s commentary have focused on the bit about slavery, and understandably so. It falls in line with an (a)historical perspective fathered by former U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun, who wrote in 1837 that slavery was a “positive good.” More recently, in 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested that slavery helped Black people because it emphasized trades, such as being a blacksmith.
Just so we’re clear, slavery is bad, was bad, and forever will be bad. The horrors of the transatlantic slave trade began with a people being torn from their homeland and ways of life. Add to that the vile conditions via transport to America and elements of chattel slavery, which included, but were not limited to, beatings, lynchings, and the raping of women and children.
How bad is slavery? Slavery is so bad that in 2025, a whole 160 years after the freedoms of the formerly enslaved in the state of Texas were formally recognized, it is still harrowing to teach about its legacy and how it shaped America.
The inherent problem about whitewashing slavery and American history in general is that it eliminates the road map to critical thinking and accountability. To paraphrase the title of the famous text from historian John Hope Franklin, how does one understand the story of freedom if intention is placed on erasing slavery?
But not even whitewashing the Smithsonian – or any other museum – can erase the horrors of slavery. I toured the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington in May, and its approach to instruction and insight follows the principles of Mr. Franklin, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995. Teach about the tragedy of slavery as a means of understanding the hard-fought freedoms that would follow. Or as Mr. Franklin himself put it:
“If the house is to be set in order, one cannot begin with the present; he must begin with the past.”
