Challenges to the Smithsonian - why our diverse history is important.

On August 19, President Donald J. Trump went on his Truth Social site and attacked the Smithsonian Institution, writing:

“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

The Smithsonian, popularly known as “America’s attic,” is a must-see for Washington, D.C. visitors, where its multiple museums tell America’s story – the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I’ve visited many of their museums, and I always leave uplifted and thoughtful, not despairing about these United States, but instead with a better understanding of this brave experiment in democracy and an appreciation for our diverse and multifaceted stories.

In particular, the President attacked the National Museum of African American History and Culture. On a D.C. trip a few years ago, I stayed an extra day, one of the first in line when the museum doors opened.

A museum is more than random artifacts or writing on a wall.  What first struck me with the African American museum was its architectural thoughtfulness.  The story unfolds in the museum’s lowest levels, with darker lighting, where the slavery story is told.  As one ascends, level to level, the museum brightens.  Through slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, the Civil Rights movement, to the current day, one traces both the travails and triumphs that our nation endured as a people rose from affliction to hope.  It was sobering but also uplifting. 

Any history is a complex story, just like we all are.  When I speak to a class, I always emphasize that history is more than dates; history is human beings making choices, choices later generations grapple with, live with the consequences of, and try to understand.

When I first came to Illinois State University in 1973 as a history major, I was interested in the grand sweep of the world’s story, particularly the U.S.  Luckily, I was assigned as a teaching assistant to Dr. George Cunningham, who taught African American history.  At first, I was dismissive, as I regarded African American history as a minor historical aspect. Thanks to Dr. Cunningham and my exposure to not only the historical literature but also traveling South with him to visit his family, my eyes were opened. 

I realized that the African American story is a central bedrock of U.S. history.  Centuries of slavery built an economic foundation that this country prospered from, not only plantation owners, but also New England textile mill operators and the early U.S. banking system.  I learned stories of resistance, as people cast into an abject and cruel system, built survival systems.  As Abraham Lincoln spoke in downtown Bloomington on May 29, 1856, he condemned the slave system and called for resistance.  Five years later, this nation was immersed in its bloody Civil War, deciding whether this nation would stand or collapse as a house divided.

If we don’t explore this history, we miss the lost moments.  As the slave power was defeated, the formerly enslaved were free, but with few resources and literacy.  I often wonder if this country’s story would be completely different if General William T. Sherman’s prescription of “40 acres and a mule” might have given these newly liberated people an economic foundation to stand on.  Instead, the power of land ownership stayed with the elite, casting both the freed people and poor white people into the peonage of sharecropping.

Is America great?  Of course, it’s great because this nation continually wrestles with democracy and how we preserve and expand it.  Democracy is more than a vote every two years.  Democracy is seeing every person, no matter their skin pigmentation, gender, immigration status, or social class, as a dignified human being, a contributor to that great U.S. story, if only given the chance.  That is the brightness and the future we should embrace.

by Mike Matejka, published in the Bloomington IL Pantagraph, September 14, 2025.