National Park Services removes references to Harriet Tubman from ‘Underground Railroad’ webpage

An image of and quote from Harriet Tubman have been removed from a National Parks webpage about the “Underground Railroad,” following several prominent changes to government websites under the Trump administration.

An image of and quote from Harriet Tubman have been removed from a National Parks webpage about the “Underground Railroad,” following several prominent changes to government websites under the Trump administration. The National Parks Service webpage for the “Underground Railroad” used to lead with a quote from Tubman, the railroad’s most famous “conductor”, a comparison on the Wayback Machine between the webpage on January 21 and March 19 shows. Both the quote and an image of Tubman have since been removed, along with several references to “enslaved” people and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The Washington Post first reported on the changes. The webpage now leads with commemorative stamps of various civil rights leaders with text including the phrase “Black/White Cooperation.” Whereas previously, the article started with a description of enslaved peoples’ efforts to free themselves and the organization of the Underground Railroad after the Fugitive Slave Act, the article now starts with two paragraphs that emphasize the “American ideals of liberty and freedom” and do not specifically mention slavery. Tubman’s removal from the “Underground Railroad” page “is both offensive and absurd,” Fergus Bordewich, a historian and the author of a book about the Underground Railroad, told CNN Sunday. He described the new webpage as “diminished in value by its brevity.” “To oversimplify history is to distort it,” Bordewich went on. “Americans are not infants: they can handle complex and challenging historical narratives. They do not need to be protected from the truth.” Janell Hobson, a professor of women’s studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, described Tubman as “one of our greatest American heroes and definitely the greatest liberator in this nation” in an email to CNN.