Smithsonian disputes claim that artifacts being removed from African American History Museum (2025)

EDITOR’S NOTE- This story has been updated to reflect more accurately information about the situation and includes a response and details from the Smithsonian.

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Some reports and a civil rights leader say crucial artifacts and exhibits are being removed from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

It comes a month after President Trump’s executive order to remove what he calls “improper ideology” from Smithsonian museums.

Despite the timing, the Smithsonian says the removals of some artifacts are part of its routine loan agreements “…in accordance with the Smithsonian’s high standards of care and preservation and as part of our regular museum turnover.”

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Civil rights activist and San Francisco Pastor Rev. Dr. Amos Brown said he received an email this month stating that his artifacts were being returned.

Since 2016, the museum has had Brown’s Bible from when he went to demonstrations with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson. It also had his copy of “History of the Negro Race, 1618-1880.” It was the first comprehensive history of African Americans from slavery through Reconstruction.

The Smithsonian told him: “Your books are delicate. Well, they know how to preserve things,” Brown explained in an interview with DC News Now.

“I did not get an email saying we are temporarily sending it back for repair, or we are going to repair. It was this general email saying we are sending back to you your book, your Bible,” he said. “It is an assault on Black folks’ humanity, their ethnic and cultural identity, and is downright inhumane.”

The Smithsonian responded to DC News Now, stating, in part:

“The Bible and book belong to Rev. Brown of San Francisco who generously loaned them to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for an exhibition. The loan agreement has expired and the items are being returned (in May) to the owner which is standard museum practice for any loan. The curator called and wrote to Rev. Brown.”

The situation involving Brown’s returned artifacts aside, Trump’s order remains a concern for visitors to the National Museum of American History and Culture, including Taneka Williams from Suffolk, Va.

“It’s erasing or trying to hide past, a Black history. And I think it shouldn’t be hidden or erased. I think it needs to be highlighted,” Williams said.

“Black history is also American history,” she continued.

Adding to the anxiety of many was a report by Black Press USA, which claimed a Woolworth’s lunch counter from North Carolina — a central symbol to the Civil Rights Movement — would be removed from the museum.

In a statement released Monday, the Smithsonian said this report was false. The institution said:

Recent reports about the Smithsonian removing the historicGreensboro, North Carolina, lunch counter and a stool from the National Museum of American History and National Museum of African American History and Culture, respectively, are inaccurate.

Both the Greensboro lunch counter and stools where college students sat in protest during the Civil Rights Movement are and continue to be on display. A stool from the sit-ins remains on view at the National Museum of African American History and Culture as the centerpiece of an interactive exhibition. The larger section of the Greensboro counter also remains on display at the National Museum of American History. Suggestions that the Smithsonian had planned or intended to remove these items are false.

Further, the Smithsonian routinely returns loaned artifacts per applicable loan agreements and rotates objects on display in accordance with the Smithsonian’s high standards of care and preservation and as part of our regular museum turnover. Recent claims that objects have been removed for reasons other than adherence to standard loan agreements or museum practices are false.

As the steward of our nation’s treasures and history, the Smithsonian preserves and protects all objects and artifacts in its collection to ensure their long-term conservation and to safeguard them for future generations.

The Smithsonian

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