National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Has Displays Flagged for Violating President's Executive Order at Cane River

The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom was created through an Act of Congress passed in 1998 which gave the National Park Service responsibility for sites connected to the Underground Railroad. According to the National Park Service’s website; “It’s mission, through collaboration with local, state and federal entities, as well as individuals and organizations, is to honor, preserve and promote the history of resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, which continues to inspire people worldwide. Through its mission, the Network to Freedom helps to advance the idea that all human beings embrace the right to self-determination and freedom from oppression.”

These displays are at the Cane River Creole National Historic Park in Louisiana where two plantations are preserved. While there is literature on the architecture of the plantations and their crops, what was identified as being against the president’s Executive Order had to do with the repression of slavery, the Underground Railroad undermining enslavement, Emancipation during the Civil War, the recruitment of the United States Colored Troops, Reconstruction, and the Civil Rights Movement. Here are some of the literature and exhibits that have been identified by Interior Department employees for having violated the president’s Executive Order.

The first piece of literature an overview of The March to Freedom. It opens with two slave revolts of the early 19th Century, Nate Turner’s Revolt and the Pointe Coupee Revolt in Louisiana. The Pointe Coupee Revolt was met with massive repression, including the execution of 23 Blacks with their heads place on pikes for display to African American men, women, and children. The literature also points to how enslaved people kept alive their African traditions under the cover of Catholicism.

Next is a description of Blacks risking their lives in unsuccessful attempts to be free.

The Civil War is a catalyst for Blacks achieving their freedom, at least temporarily. This fight for freedom included joining the Union Army.

After the Civil War, white former-Confederates met the growing equality with “Shotgun Sovereignty.” The violence of the Knights of the White Camelia, the White League, and the Ku Klux Klan were designed to keep Blacks from exercising their new-found Constitutional rights under the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Yet, African Americans put their lives in danger by building schools and churches and other institutions of community to make sure their culture was not completely lost.

There is a description of the 20th Century Civil Rights Era, but nothing on the current effort to restrain those civil rights gains.

There are several displays on Reconstruction, Sharecropping, and the Civil Rights movement, but the photos were not detailed.

Also red-flagged are exhibits in outer buildings like this one describing the plantation overseer.

The president’s Executive Order says that some of the National Parks harm the “United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.” The president says that proper history should “foster unity.” He writes that “Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame.” The president sketches out how the National Park Service should approach history:

“It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing. ”