Information about Harriet Tubman has been restored to a National Park Service webpage after its removal sparked controversy
Even people who do not consider themselves “woke” probably woke up shocked on Monday when they discovered that abolitionist Harriet Tubman was removed from a National Park Service’s (NPS) website dedicated to the Underground Railroad.
Tubman, heroically, led many enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad in the 1800s.
Historian Fergus Borderwich, author of a book about the Underground Railroad, described Tubman’s removal from the webpage as “both offensive and absurd.”
Borderwich labeled the webpage changes as “diminished in value by its brevity.”
He added, “To oversimplify history is to distort it. Americans are not infants; they can handle complex and challenging narratives. They do not need to be protected from the truth.”
In an email to CNN, University of Albany (State University of New York) women’s studies professor Janell Hobson called Tubman “one of our greatest American heroes and definitely the greatest liberator in this nation.”
Hobson added, “I hope that National Parks Service realize they owe it to her and other heroes like her to stand in the truth of what this history has been.”
After an outcry from the community, the National Parks Service restored Tubman’s webpage.
Clarissa-Jan Lim of MSNBC reported, “The National Parks Service has restored a page on its website about the Underground Railroad on Monday, telling CNN in a statement that the alterations ‘were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership.’”
Zoe Sottie of CNN reported, “There is a separate National Park Service webpage dedicated to Harriet Tubman, who was born into slavery in Maryland before fleeing to Philadelphia. She returned to Maryland over a dozen times to help free other slaves, guiding them through the ‘Underground Railroad,’ a secret network of routes and safe houses. The park service webpage on Tubman does not seem to have changed since January 28, 2025…
“The past few months have also seen other controversial changes to government websites as the Trump administration enacts a campaign to eliminate DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion. The removal of words ‘transgender’ or ‘queer’ from a National Parks Service webpage about Stonewall Monument in New York City triggered protests in February.”
In March, the Pentagon removed a page dedicated to Major League Baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson before reposting the page after massive backlash.
Last year, Tubman posthumously received the general title in a Veterans’ Day ceremony.
The Associated Press reported that Tubman was the first woman to oversee a military action during wartime.
In November 2024, the A.P. reported, “Tubman escaped slavery herself in 1849, settling in Philadelphia in 1849. Intent on helping others achieve freedom, she established the Underground Railroad network and led other enslaved Black women and men to freedom. She then channeled those experiences as a scout, spy and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War, helping guide 150 Black soldiers on a gunboat raid in South Carolina.”
According to The African American Encyclopedia, “During the early years of the Civil War, the governor of Massachusetts sent for Tubman to engage her services as a spy, scout, and nurse for the Union Army. At the time, Tubman lived in Auburn, N.Y., on a farm with her parents. Leaving her parents and farm to the care of charitable neighbors and friends, she went to war. Her labors included leading armies through swamps, gaining the confidence of recently liberated slaves (who often feared northern Whites more than they feared their former owners), nursing soldiers, using the knowledge of roots and herbs acquired from her father, and passing through enemy lines as a spy. After the war, she returned to Auburn, where she found her farm being sold to satisfy delinquent mortgage payments.”
Golden Herring of RegalMag.com wrote, “In 2019, Hollywood produced a major motion picture entitled ‘Harriet’ starring Cynthia Erivo as the famous freedom fighter.
“Erivo received an Oscar nomination for her performance in ‘Harriet.’
“In 2022, a Chicago elementary renamed itself to honor Tubman after past racist remarks from the school’s original namesake led to a new moniker.
“And [this] year, Philadelphia will unveil a 14-foot statue of Tubman, designed by an African-American artist.
“Unfortunately, efforts to replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Tubman hit a snag when President…Donald Trump nixed the idea during his first administration.
“And with Trump’s efforts to ban diversity, equity and inclusion, all currency might remain White and male for the foreseeable future.
“Despite her heroic life, Tubman spent the final years of life struggling financially and physically.”
According to The African American Encyclopedia, “By the war’s end, Tubman was some forty-five years old and penniless. She also continued to suffer from the wound inflicted to her during her youth…
“Tubman continued to lobby for the establishment of a home for the indigent aged Blacks of Auburn. During the years that funds were insufficient for such a project, she converted her own home into a shelter for the aged. In 1897, more than thirty years after the end of the Civil War and after decades of asking the federal government, Tubman was awarded a pension of twenty dollars a month. Much of her pension she used to help shelter and care for the aged. The people of Auburn, moved by her selflessness, eventually rallied to her aid and established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged Indigent Negroes in 1908.”
On X, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) wrote, “Trump is trying to rewrite the history of the Underground Railroad—even diminishing its conductor, MD’s own Harriet Tubman.”
