On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Trump administration is rewriting history by wielding the tools of censorship and erasure.

At the National Park Service site honoring Charles Pickney, who wrote a draft of the Declaration of Independence, for example, references to the people enslaved at the location are being scrubbed. As another example, the administration has identified as problematic an exhibit about Benjamin Franklin’s scientific achievements because it also mentions Franklin’s ownership of enslaved people.

History and tradition make us aware of who we are and what we are becoming. Notably, America continued to reveal itself, as Jill Lepore has written in her prize-winning book “These Truths: A History of the United States.”

See Full Page