Whitewashing & Reframing
1966
1966-01-01 Jerry Falwell founded the whites-only Lynchburg Christian Academy to circumvent the 1954 ruling to ban segregation. He wrote in his book ‘America Can Be Saved’, “I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them”. In 1977 courts ruled that segregated private religious schools could not qualify as charitable organizations or retain tax exempt status.
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/falwell-jerry-1933-2007/
https://www.ocala.com/story/news/2007/05/20/a-sad-legacy-left-behind/31202665007
2021 June
2021-06-01 Texas House Bill 3979 was signed into law to restrict how race, slavery and current events are taught in K-12 public schools. The bill removed educational material pertaining to Native American history, Cesar Chavez, and Susan B. Anthony. It also restricted or removed writings of Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther King Jr.
https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB3979/id/2339637
https://www.idra.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/What-does-HB-3979-do-IDRA-reference.pdf
2021 July
2021-07-21 Fox News contributor Leo Terrell attacked Critical Race Theory in schools and AOC for defending it. Trump later appointed him to be Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in January 2025.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3857230367939923
2021 September
2021-09-17 During an interview on Jack Murphy Live, JD Vance shared a number of loaded opinions with listeners “we have to stop this nonstop assault on American history…making everyone think we should judge people by their worst flaws…” and continued to say very few leaders are willing to teach “true” civics and American history. He attacked CRT, ranted that “wokeism” was assimilation, and tied woke in with his own experience of being “assimilated” in higher education. He later called on conservatism as a counter-revolutionary force.
2025 January
2025-01-26 As part of Trump’s DEI initiative, The United States Air Force was directed to remove any training courses that include DEI, even those referencing the Tuskegee Airmen or the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WACS).
https://apnews.com/article/air-force-dei-tuskegee-women-wwii-pilots-ecdeac68dc7696535d093c7690ab73bc
2025 March
2025-03-07 News outlets reported on more historical purges of military photos falling under the DEI initiative, mostly targeting women and minorities.
2025-03-07 News outlets continued to report on the DEI purge, warning of a broad attack on anything containing keywords.
2025-03-27 Trump signed executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” to “pivot towards a positive retelling of history”, but many see this as whitewashing and sanitization of the full truth.
2025 April
2025-04-11 The Trump administration sent a letter to Harvard demanding they conduct a federal government-approved audit of its student and faculty to determine “viewpoint diversity” among other requests. Harvard refused, calling the demands unconstitutional.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/harvard-university-trump.html
2025-04-29 The Department of Education launched an investigation into the Harvard Law Review. The DOE accused Harvard of discrimination against white males because they “appeared to favor minority writers” and cited an increase among faculty of people of color, women, and nonbinary people.
2025 June
2025-06-01 Pete Hegseth renamed several U.S. Naval Ships that were named after prominent women, civil rights leaders, or any other American character he feels does not meet criteria for his “warrior ethos”
2025 August
2025-08-19 Trump sent out a social media post calling museums in Washington “WOKE”, writing, “Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was”. In his post, Trump instructed his attorneys to “go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities…”. He also tweeted “We have the HOTTEST Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums”.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115056914674717313
2025 September
2025-09-10 The Department of Education announced it will be defunding minority-serving institutions such as Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, Strengthening Predominantly Black Institutions, Strengthening Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions, Strengthening Native American Serving Nontribal Institutions, Minority Science and Engineering Improvement, Developing Hispanic Service Institutions, and Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans.
2025-09-17 The Trump administration ordered the National Park Service to remove or censor exhibits at Harpers Ferry West Virginia, including the Civil War Museum and John Brown’s Fort (a key site in an 1859 abolitionist raid).
2025 December
2025-12-03 A Colorado Springs teacher was indefinitely suspended after posting her school district’s changes in curriculum that will include censorship of elements of science and elements of anti-slavery activism such as the efforts of Franklin Douglas.
https://www.fox21news.com/news/d11-fifth-grade-teacher-could-lose-her-job/
2026 January
2026-01-23 The Trump administration ordered the National Park Service staff to remove a slavery exhibit from a park in Philadelphia in alignment with Trump’s Executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history”.
2026 February
2026-02-17 A judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate a slavery exhibit at the Presidential House in Philadelphia, citing George Orwell’s 1984, comparing the Trump administration to the book’s totalitarian regime which revised historical records to align with its own narratives.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/16/politics/philadelphia-slavery-exhibits-judge-orders-return-orwell