As President Donald Trump’s administration dismantles parts of D.C.’s public tributes to Black history, independent museum leaders said they are continuing their work preserving the city’s heritage, adding they feel empowered to protect and celebrate it as independent stewards.

In his first year back in power, Trump — much to the chagrin of historians and former staff — has directed the Smithsonian to conduct a “comprehensive” audit of eight of its museums and replace “divisive or ideologically” driven language with “unifying, historically accurate and constructive” descriptions and ordered crews to remove the yellow “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street one block from the White House. But independent museum organizers said Trump’s efforts will not erase the District’s history, adding that they’ve expanded preservation and public education programming efforts by launching initiatives like concerts and community archiving days. 

Trump specifically targeted the National Museum of African American History and Culture in his March 2025 executive order, claiming the museum has “proclaimed that ‘hard work,’ ‘individualism’ and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture,’” which is “indoctrination” and “distorting” American history.

Black Georgetown Foundation Executive Director Lisa Fager said the organization, which manages two of D.C.’s oldest Black cemeteries, said Trump’s actions have only pushed people to research, preserve and document it more vigorously. She also said there has been a “swell of people” who have been empowered to engage in uncovering history and are now expanding the Georgetown Neighborhood Library’s “thin” archives on Black residents to ensure the history of those buried in the cemeteries is fully told.

“If you put the evidence in front of people, the truth speaks for itself,” she said.

Fager said her tour titled “Resting in Resistance” has seen an increase in interest amongst college students, high schools and middle-school students in recent years, which has allowed her to explain history from different perspectives for younger age groups. She said the tours educate visitors about both the people buried there and the challenges the cemetery faces, including the organization’s struggle to launch a stormwater management program essential for preserving the headstones and remains, connecting people to not only Black history but American history at large.

“We connect real people to the landscape, and it makes history more real,” Fager said. “People now use primary sources, church records, ledgers, they’re all evidence. Most Black history wasn’t written in textbooks anyway but right here, it’s written in the ground, so we just read the landscape the same way we would read an archive.”

Although Fager said she wouldn’t attribute the increase in visitors to one political figure or administration, she has seen a “moment” where people want a more honest understanding of American history, especially when they sense history is being minimized. Fager said the cemetery serves as a tangible, documented space of those who have shaped D.C.’s history.

“The increase feels less like a reaction to politics and more like a growing desire for truth and connection, especially among younger visitors who want to understand the complete story of this city and Georgetown,” she said.

CEO and founder of D.C.’s Go-Go Museum & Cafe Richard Moten said the Trump administration canceled some of the museum’s federal grants it received through the National Endowment for the Arts in their move to shutter the agency, though he added they’ve been able to support themselves through community fundraising efforts. Moten said the museum’s independence is important, especially in today’s day and age, as it allows them to freely educate visitors without fears of getting funding pulled.

He also said Black history is deeply tied to the District, pointing to D.C. historian Carter G. Woodson’s founding of “Negro History Week” in 1926, which later became Black History Month, and the city’s “Chocolate City” nickname because of its predominantly Black population.

“We’ve been doing a masterful job of getting the resources to do events, conversations and advocate and teach about our music, coaching history in a way that’s profound compared to what other museums who have much more resources and money,” he said.

Go-Go Museum’s chief curator Natalie Hopkinson said every inch of the museum, from the floors to the bathroom walls, is packed with information about the music, for both tourists and “go-go heads” to learn as much as they can in a space where federal funds and power do not affect the content. She said while curating the information for the museum, she had to ensure which details about go-go were most important for visitors to know and reflect the information in different mediums from artificial intelligence holograms to artifacts and paraphernalia.

“The money is smaller, but the control is big, and you can decide what you’re going to do,” Hopkinson said.

Hopkinson — who is also a professor of media, democracy and society at American University — said concerts and festivals, where the museum hosts go-go “creative makers,” from merchandise vendors to independent creators, have helped the community grow and increase exposure to the genre, especially in “elite cultural institutions,” like the Kennedy Center.

She said she’s confident the “imperfect institutions,” like the Kennedy Center, will survive, but people cannot rely on the way that power has shifted in the Trump administration as checks on power are not the same as they used to be.

“Part of the work of democracy is just shaking the trees and making sure that you negotiate your power, and it’s something that you have to do on a daily basis,” she said. “And when you think you’ve won, it doesn’t mean that you’ve won, it means that it’s just for today, that means you still have to go with it again tomorrow.”

Marlene Orantes contributed reporting.