Rangers Teach Black History After Trump Axed Exhibit

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. — On Juneteenth 2026, a group of former National Park Service employees gathered on the historic grounds of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park to do what the federal government would not: teach Black history. Under the banner of the “Resistance Rangers,” these former rangers held a public teach-in, distributing banned educational materials and honoring the stories the Trump administration had ordered removed from public view.

The effort comes after President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14253 in March 2025, directing federal agencies to remove exhibits that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Since then, at least 51 exhibits from 37 federal sites have been removed or flagged for removal, covering topics including slavery, civil rights, climate change, women’s suffrage, and Indigenous history, according to AP News.

The Exhibit That Never Opened

At the center of the story is Elizabeth Kerwin, a former exhibit planner at Harpers Ferry who spent three years building a memorial wall highlighting hundreds of enslaved people connected to the site — a place best known for abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid on a federal armory. Her exhibit was cancelled before it ever opened. Today, the old stone building that was to house it sits empty, its door locked and windows boarded up, as NPR reported.

“The people who were overlooked and unnamed and didn’t count in the official record, they deserve to take up space in our national memory,” Kerwin said. “They are America.”

Kerwin, who is white, said she was devastated when the project was sidelined — not just for herself, but for her teenage son, a Black boy who she hoped would see his own history reflected in the exhibit’s walls. “He was foremost in my heart as I was working on this,” she said. “I hoped he would see strength and resilience in that story.”

The Resistance Rangers Respond

In response to the removals, former park employees formed the Resistance Rangers and co-founded the America 433+ education coalition — named after the 433 sites in the National Park System. On Juneteenth, they launched their public education campaign at Harpers Ferry, distributing discontinued educational booklets, banned pamphlets, and wooden “Junior Resistance Ranger” badges to visitors.

Melissa Dalley, a Resistance Ranger and former park guide at the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, addressed the crowd. “The only way that change has ever happened in this country is through a small, committed group of American citizens working really hard,” she said. “What we’re doing out here is trying to recruit those people into that citizen army.”

Cathy Fulkerson, a 69-year-old visitor from New Hampshire, expressed dismay at what she witnessed. “It’s really disturbing to see that there’s two educational booklets for children from different Black history sites that are no longer being printed because of our government’s decision to support racism instead of justice and liberty for all,” she told NPR.

A Legal Battle Unfolds

The exhibit removals have sparked a significant legal challenge. The National Parks Conservation Association, along with other advocacy groups, sued the Department of the Interior. On June 12, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley ordered the government to cease further removals and reinstate 52 items at more than 30 federal sites by July 3.

“History cannot be faithfully told while excluding the experiences of communities whose contributions, struggles, and achievements form an important part of our Nation’s story,” Judge Kelley wrote in her ruling.

However, on June 23, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily paused the July 3 reinstatement deadline, as USA Today/Reuters reported. The appeals court left Judge Kelley’s main ruling — halting further removals — in place while it considers the case. An Interior Department spokesperson said the department was “confident that as this inferior ruling from an activist lower court judge receives further scrutiny, they will be further restrained.”

A Deeper Debate About History

The controversy unfolds against the backdrop of America’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. The Trump administration has framed its actions as restoring patriotic history for the celebration, while critics argue the administration is erasing important aspects of American history to fit a sanitized narrative.

Steven Mintz, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, commended the former rangers’ efforts. “The most lasting form of reparations is remembrance,” Mintz said. “We owe a debt to the past. All of the prosperity we enjoy and the freedoms we enjoy are due to the people who were willing to sacrifice for us. We have a duty to remember them.”

Alan Spears of the National Parks Conservation Association emphasized the stakes. “National parks serve as living classrooms for our country, where science and history come to life for visitors,” he told AP News. “As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”

What’s Next

The Resistance Rangers have planned a national protest on June 27, soliciting signatures for a “declaration of interdependence” advocating for safety, dignity, living wages, and a clean environment. Meanwhile, the legal battle continues: the 1st Circuit has yet to rule on whether Judge Kelley’s entire decision is on hold while the administration appeals.

It remains unclear whether Kerwin’s exhibit at Harpers Ferry will ever open to the public. But for the former rangers, the mission has already succeeded in one crucial respect: on a sun-drenched afternoon in June, visitors to Harpers Ferry learned the history the government tried to remove — and a 13-year-old boy stood at his mother’s side as she told it.