Pursuant to Executive Order 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” issued in March, Trump administration officials have ordered the removal of all signage, exhibits, and photographs that depict slavery, The Washington Post reports.
For example, museums and parks have been told to remove an iconic 1863 photograph, titled “The Scourged Back,” of a slave showing deep scars on his back. The executive order is real, the order is being acted upon in many cases, and “The Scourged Back” is among the images cited in the reporting. That image is famous: it showed the back of Gordon, a formerly enslaved man, revealing the brutal lash marks from whipping. It was published in 1863, particularly in Harper’s Weekly, and had a significant influence on shaping Northern public opinion on slavery and the Civil War.
But in late March 2025, President Donald Trump signed the executive order, directing changes in how US history is presented, especially at Smithsonian museums and in national historic sites under the Department of the Interior. Key provisions include requiring exhibits, markers, signage, memorials, etc., not to contain “descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” or which may instill “divisive, race-centered ideology.”
Under this executive order, certain exhibits are being flagged, edited, or removed, the Associated Press reported. Exactly how many signs or exhibits have been removed or will be removed, or where, is not fully detailed publicly. Many reports say “flagged,” “under review,” or “ordered removed,” but not always that they have been physically removed everywhere.
The degree to which exhibits in museums beyond the National Parks and Smithsonian will be affected varies; for example, it’s not clear whether all Smithsonian exhibits have already been changed or are just under review, according to reports on PBS and in The Washington Post. There’s debate about exactly what counts as “improper ideology” or “divisive narrative,” which gives some ambiguity about what exhibits qualify for removal or modification. Some reports suggest that internal staff are being overly conservative (over-flagging) due to vague instructions.
The Classroom Reality
Civics and social studies teachers grappling with how to teach government and history when students see contradictions between the “Schoolhouse Rock” version and today’s politics.
The order’s intent is clear: to reshape the story we tell about our past. Yet this editing of history is colliding directly with what happens in America’s classrooms, where teachers are struggling to answer students’ questions about government and power in the present.
As Education Week recently reported, civics teachers across the country say their lessons are increasingly out of sync with reality.
Massachusetts teacher Andrew Swan asked his eighth graders to consider how the Constitution guards against tyranny, guiding them through James Madison’s Federalist Papers and the checks and balances among the three branches. His students dutifully drew triangles showing legislative, executive, and judicial powers.
But at the same time, the headlines told a different story: the president defying court orders, killing suspected drug smugglers with military bombs, bypassing Congress to reallocate funding, and federalizing police forces. The tidy triangle suddenly seemed like a fiction.
In New Jersey, teacher Michael Martirone reported that his students couldn’t understand why Congress wasn’t reining in the president. “There’s just a level of disbelief with the kids,” he said.
Their disbelief points to a larger truth. For decades, civics education has told a simplified story of American government — the Schoolhouse Rock version — where powers are neatly divided and rules are faithfully followed. That version was never the full picture, but today the gap is especially wide.
Creating a Historical Gap
The same gap is now visible in our historic sites. When visitors enter museums or stand at Civil War battlefields, they expect to encounter hard truths about our past: slavery, racism, discrimination. “The Scourged Back” is painful to look at precisely because it’s real. Erasing it doesn’t erase the past, just our ability to learn from it.
Removing such depictions sends a mixed message to young people. Teachers are expected to foster critical thinking, but the government is actively scrubbing context from the very places where history should be preserved. It’s no wonder students feel disoriented.
Generally, when history and civics feel connected to the present, students engage with the content. When the stories line up with what they see around them, their writing and thinking sharpens. But what happens when the stories don’t line up or when students see history being sanitized at the same time their government bends or breaks constitutional norms?
One Approach to Teaching Civics Today
Civics teachers say the best approach is inquiry: let students ask the questions, then guide them back to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the history of how these documents have been interpreted. But that still leaves hard realities unexplained: the role of partisanship, the sway of money in politics, the fact that Congress often protects a president of the same party rather than checking executive power.
To avoid these topics is to leave students unequipped for citizenship. To tackle them head-on is to risk backlash in a polarized climate.
A bigger question: Can democracy sustain itself if both history and civics are edited to serve political ends? If historic sites cannot show the truth of slavery, and civics classes cannot explain why the branches of government don’t always work as designed, then students are left with a fractured picture of their country.
Yet students are also resilient. In Pennsylvania, one civics teacher reported that her students, most of them children of immigrants, ended their discussions of executive power by asking what they themselves could do if the government wasn’t following the Constitution. Some wrote to lawmakers. Others debated openly in class.
That’s the real lesson: civic life is messy, contested, and constantly evolving. Scrubbing history or simplifying civics doesn’t make those truths disappear. It just makes it harder for students to grasp their role in shaping what comes next.
The executive order that removes “The Scourged Back” from our historic sites doesn’t just sanitize the past; it undermines the present work of teachers trying to prepare the next generation of citizens. If we want young people to believe in democracy, we must give them the tools to see it clearly, with all its flaws and contradictions.
History should not be curated to flatter. Civics should not be reduced to diagrams. Students deserve the full, complicated truth and the chance to decide for themselves how to carry that truth forward.
