To the editor:

As a 37-year-old Black father, I am deeply disturbed by the news that the Trump administration has begun removing artifacts from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Taking down pieces like the historic Woolworth’s lunch counter is not just an attack on a building or display–it’s an attack on truth, memory, and the progress we’ve fought so hard to make.

Our history is not a “divisive narrative.” It is the truth of this nation’s journey. It’s the story of resilience, of struggle, of voices that refused to be silenced. Erasing these symbols doesn’t change the past–it just blinds future generations to it.

The first Black history museum I ever visited as a young child was right in East Liverpool, Ohio. That experience left an impression on me that shaped how I see myself and my place in this country. That’s why I believe, as someone from the Ohio River Valley, that Black history must be preserved, taught, and honored–not hidden. Our region has its own rich and complicated history when it comes to race, labor, and civil rights. Pretending that history doesn’t exist only allows old wounds to fester and new injustices to grow.

I want my child and other to visit these museums, because i want them to know who they are, where they come from, and the shoulders they stand on. We cannot allow political fear or discomfort to dictate which parts of history are told. The lunch counter, the marches, the freedom songs–these are not just Black history. They are American history.

We must speak out, stand up, and fight back against this attempt to whitewash the past. Because if we let them remove our history from the museum today, they’ll try to remove it from the classroom, the books, and our future tomorrow.

DANIEL WINSTON,

Wellsville