Harriet Tubman was nearly ghosted from her own story. The National Park Service is walking back quiet changes to its Underground Railroad webpage that dramatically downplayed Tubman’s presence. Gone was a large photo of her. Gone was a powerful quote. And the word “slavery” appeared nowhere until paragraph three.
Instead, the revised page focused on American ideals of liberty — as if Tubman hadn’t risked her life fighting a country that denied liberty to Black people. Let’s be clear, Tubman wasn’t a footnote in this history, she was the movement.
Following a Sunday report by the Washington Post and backlash from historians and educators, the page has been restored. But the move raises serious concerns, especially in a political climate where anti-DEI agendas are scrubbing Black history out of federal spaces. If there’s one thing Tubman taught us, it’s never to stop moving forward.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
