Museum of the American Revolution to Host Moms for Liberty Over Objections

Later this week the Museum of the American Revolution will host a gathering organized by Moms for Liberty as part of their four-day sold-out summit in Philadelphia. I first brought this to your attention back on June 10. There are a number of objections one could highlight in providing a venue for an organization that the SPLC has labelled a “hate group,” but I want to stick with history education—a subject near and dear to my heart.

Over the past few weeks a number of organizations, including the National Council on Public History, Organization of American Historians, and American Historical Association have published statements denouncing Moms for Liberty and calling on the museum to cancel the event.

From the NCPH:

M4L also has a record of engaging with white supremacist groups to intimidate school boards. By hosting Moms for Liberty, the Museum of the American Revolution is enabling M4L to spread a message that is antithetical to ethical public history practice, especially when it comes to engaging audiences with an authentic representation of the past, promoting critical thinking, and countering those who seek to distort history in contemporary public discourse.

From the AHA:

The AHA would not be making this request if it was only a matter of disagreement over content or interpretation. Moms for Liberty has every right to argue for an approach to history education with which we disagree. However, Moms for Liberty has crossed a boundary in its attempts to silence and harass teachers, rather than participate in legitimate controversy. Moms for Liberty promotes legislation that censors honest and accurate history teaching, and even threatens teachers with termination for no offense other than teaching history with professional integrity… For the AHA, this isn’t about politics or different understandings of our nation’s past; it’s about an organization whose mission is to obstruct the professional responsibilities of historians.

From the OAH:

As the largest professional organization of US historians in the country, the OAH expresses, unequivocally, the organization’s opposition to the actions of M4L and groups like it that seek to distort history and historical practice. There are multiple harms at the center of the agenda of these groups: harm to accurate and inclusive history, harm to the work undertaken everyday by our community of historians, and harm to individual historians—especially in the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. We condemn these groups that threaten by word and action the ability of teachers to teach, students to learn, scholars to produce and amplify histories of systemic discrimination, and the safety of individuals for whom that discrimination still reverberates today. The increasing normalization of these groups in the national public discourse is an outrage. 

I think it is important to highlight Jim Grossman’s statement for the AHA that their objection is not simply a disagreement over how history is taught. We can and should be able to disagree about issues of content and pedagogy, but that is not what this is about. Moms for Liberty is anti-history. They have demonized and intimidated k-12 history educators across the country and have made it clear that they have no interest in critical thinking or the free exchange of ideas.

By providing a venue for Moms for Liberty, the Museum of the American Revolution is providing cover and legitimacy for their views. Museum leadership has for all intents and purposes declared that this group’s view of history and history education should be taken seriously.

It is nothing less than a betrayal of everything that those of us in the field of history, public history, and history education are fighting for in public libraries, at school board meetings and in classrooms across this country.

Moms for Liberty chapters have attempted to ban history books about Martin Luther King, Jr., Ruby Bridges, the Civil Rights Movement, and the history of school segregation. In New Hampshire the group has offered bounties to members of the public who ‘catch’ teachers introducing texts or lessons in violation of the state’s law restricting discussions of race in school classrooms. I could go on and on.

And what book does Moms for Liberty recommend for students? Check out W. Cleon Skousen’s The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution (1985). Skousen, who died in 2006, was a member of the John Birch Society, which opposed civil rights in the 1950s and 60s and also promoted a number of conspiracy theories.

At its core, the book argues that the United States was founded by hardcore Jerry Falwell-style Christian conservatives. Its author believes that slavery was beneficial to African Americans and that racism was made worse by northern “militant” abolitionists and other reformers. It should come as no surprise that Skousen believes that Black Americans were unprepared for freedom in 1865.

If ever we needed a unified stand, that included institutions like the Museum of the American Revolution, against bigotry and open, honest, and inclusive teaching it is now.

What I find so incredibly disturbing is that if Moms for Liberty had their way, they would shut down exhibits like the museum’s new exhibit called “Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia” without even walking through it or considering its historical merit.

(Source: Philadelphia Magazine)

Allowing Moms for Liberty to gather inside the walls of a museum that professes to promote inclusive history and the freedom to explore history from all perspectives is tantamount to a German Concentration Camp inviting a Holocaust denial group to meet on its grounds.

I am beyond disappointed in this museum’s leadership. I am disgusted. I have no intention of ever setting foot inside a museum that gives legitimacy to an organization that is actively attempting to destroy everything I believe in and have spent my career promoting and defending.