How the National Park Service Is Deleting American History

NY Times -  At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the Trump administration took down an exhibit on the contradiction between President George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people and the Declaration of Independence’s promise of liberty.

At Muir Woods National Monument in California, the administration dismantled a plaque about how the tallest trees on the planet could help store carbon dioxide and slow the Earth’s dangerous warming.

And at Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts, Trump officials ordered the National Park Service to stop showing films about the women and immigrants who once toiled in the city’s textile mills.

Across the country, Park Service workers have started taking down plaques, films and other materials in connection with a directive from President Trump to remove or rewrite content that may “disparage Americans” or promote “corrosive ideology.”

The president wants to present what he considers a more positive view of American history to millions of people who visit more than 400 national parks and historic sites each year. Critics call it whitewashing, an attempt to erase difficult periods in the nation’s past as well as contributions made by people of color, gay and transgender figures, women and other marginalized groups.

“The Park Service, for most of its 100-year history, has been a standard-bearer for telling America’s stories, and not just the happy stories,” said Jonathan B. Jarvis, who led the Park Service under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. “You know, you can’t just put a happy face on slavery.”