The War on History at the National Park Service Continues

(Source: Salon)

Last week I shared the disturbing news that the website for the National Park Service’s Stonewall National Monument site in New York City was edited to comply with the Trump administration’s policies regarding DEI. The website no longer references the “TQ” in “LGBTQ.”

Today I learned that an essay published on the Stonewall site, authored by historian Wendy Rouse, has been edited without notification or permission. The same references have been edited as mentioned above along with a glossary of terms that appears at the end of the essay.

Here is the essay as it appears on the website and here it is as it was intended to be read.

Wendy Rouse is an Associate Professor of History at San Jose State University. Her scholarly research focuses on the history of women and children in the United States during the Progressive-Era. Her latest book, Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self Defense Movement was published by NYU Press.

Professor Rouse doesn’t work for the NPS and I suspect that her tenure doesn’t hinge on writing a short essay for a website. She chose to devote the time to write it for the public’s benefit.

These small incremental examples of censorship are easy to ignore or brush under the table, but they will quickly add up if left unchallenged.

In this case, the censoring of the work of an academic historian sets a very bad precedent for the NPS. The National Park Service has cultivated a strong partnership with academics across the country over the past few decades.

This can be seen across historic sites, especially at Civil War battlefields.

Interpretation at Civil War battlefields has been shaped in countless ways through the NPS’s strong ties with a wide range of academic historians, who specialize in the Civil War, Reconstruction, and slavery. You can see it on walking tours, in park museums, on wayside exhibits, in educational programs, and in lectures.

These are historians who care deeply about connecting their scholarship to the public and assisting in ways that enhance and support the incredible talent that already exists in the NPS.

Though the editing of Professor Rouse’s paper may seem inconsequential, if left unchecked it could dampen the willingness of historians to agree to spend the long hours advising, co-authoring new interpretive site plans, etc.

This would be a major loss to the NPS and contribute to the already noticeable cracks in its integrity as a caretaker of our nation’s history.

I’ve been encouraged by the response of my friends in the Civil War community to the firing of roughly 1,000 NPS employees over the past week, but I wish more of us were paying attention to what is taking place at Stonewall National Monument.

Perhaps some of you don’t identify with the LGBTQ community or care much about their history, but make no mistake, right now, their fight is our fight.