Archives & History

What archives and which history are we talking about?

From its inception, the federal government has maintained archives, overview accounts, and primary-source documentation of our country’s history; since 1934, those records have been collected, organized, and preserved by the National Archives. But the ongoing historical narrative of the United States also stands in its monuments, resides in its cultural institutions, and sprawls across hundreds of thousands of governmental and military webpages and databases, records of gravesites, and even names of geographic features.

The federal government:

• Creates and maintains information resources for the American public and for its employees and contractors, including materials for federal departments and agencies, libraries and museums, and the armed forces.
• Approves and chooses curricula and materials for all schools run by the US Department of Defense and for military training programs.
• Provides funding and guidance for schools via the Department of Education.
• Manages the National Archives and controls access to all its materials.
• Publishes legal, demographic, and scientific datasets and reports that shape public policy and funding decisions — and measure their outcomes.

Over the last few decades, there have been concerted efforts to incorporate the contributions of Americans whose experiences and accomplishments had long been suppressed into the national narrative. The second Trump administration has reversed this trajectory and is actively manipulating our historical record.

What is happening?

The Trump administration has made the elimination of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) from all aspects of American life one of its organizing principles. It has claimed broad authority to enforce ideological compliance, such as by demanding the revocation of all recognition of transgender people in US history, in the military, and in the federal government. This has resulted in the administration targeting and suppressing both the provision and the collection of information involving race, ethnicity, disability, gender, and sexual orientation, along with concepts like health equity and environmental justice, which address our country’s extreme inequalities with regard to both social and geographic communities.

All federal websites, publications, and institutions under the control of the executive branch are subject to ideological review, and many of the purges we’ve seen so far have simply eliminated most or all material mentioning the above topics. These erasures have been enacted without public oversight or review. Though the executive orders authorizing ideological purges are public, most of the actual deletions, bannings, and revisions have been discovered piecemeal by members of the press or the public. Public opposition, media coverage, and legal challenges have managed to restore some material, and we’ll continue to follow these countermoves and community-driven efforts. But the fact remains that we don’t yet know the extent of what we have lost.

Timeline of events