Trump orders 'ideology' removed from Smithsonian. What about North Carolina's sit-ins exhibit?

Danielle Battaglia, McClatchy Washington Bureau on Apr 25, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month putting Vice President JD Vance and an attorney in charge of finding and “removing improper ideology” from monuments, museums and the National Zoo overseen by the Department of Interior.

This week, the news outlet BlackPressUSA published a report that an exhibit from a historic moment in the Civil Rights Movement, Greensboro’s F.W. Woolworth Company lunch counter, fell victim to Trump’s order.

BlackPressUSA stated Thursday that “Trump officials are sending back exhibit items to their rightful owners and dismantling them — starting with the 1960 Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in exhibit.”

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington has a section of the original lunch counter on display. The other section is housed in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington is home to two of the lunch counter’s stools.

Linda St. Thomas, chief spokeswoman for the Smithsonian Institution, told McClatchy in an email Friday that the lunch counter is not at risk.

“The Greensboro, NC, lunch counter is not leaving the Smithsonian,” St. Thomas wrote. “It is on display at the National Museum of American History where it has been for many years.”

The BlackPressUSA article specifically mentioned that the exhibit was leaving the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“The National Museum of African American History and Culture also has two stools from the original counter; one is on exhibit at all times, the other rotates in so that they can be properly preserved,” St. Thomas wrote. “Bottom line is that no artifacts have left either museum.”

Cynetra McMillian, public affairs specialist for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, told McClatchy on Friday, “Since the opening, one stool has always been and continues to be on display.”

Late Friday, the news outlet updated its website and social media to say that the Smithsonian says the lunch counter exhibit will now remain at the museum.

The lunch counter took its place in American history in 1960.

It was then that four Black students from N.C. A&T State University took seats at the counter in downtown Greensboro, despite the restaurant being segregated. When they were refused service, they wouldn’t get up. And they would come back daily until Woolworth changed its segregation policies.

Their decision helped launch the Civil Rights Movement across the South that led to the end of legal segregation.

Other museums across the country have portions of lunch counters from other sit-ins that were spurred by the Greensboro Four’s actions.

BlackPressUSA’s article also reported that the museum was returning a Bible and one of the country’s first books on racism to the Rev. Amos Brown, a civil rights leader and pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.

“The Bible and book belong to Rev. Brown of San Francisco who generously loaned them to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for an exhibition,” St. James told McClatchy. “The loan agreement has expired and the items are being returned to the owner which is standard museum practice. The curator called and wrote to Rev. Brown.”

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