Present now in the House of Representatives, but without a snowball’s chance in hell of passing, is the “Black History is American History Act,” proposed by Ohio Congresswoman Joyce Beatty.
The act states that its primary aim is to make Black American history a standard core of the American history curriculum taught in the nation’s public schools. No more fairy tales of the mint julep and life on the plantations or the absence of Black men as revolutionary soldiers against the British.
Clearly, racism is alive and well in the next generations of public school children, and one way to eradicate it, according to Representative Beatty, is to start teaching the real history and contributions of Black Americans to the birth, growth, and development of the modern United States. This history is to include, but not be focused on, slavery and its benefits and detriment in American history.
The current Trump administration will surely not sign such a bill, even if it magically got through both houses of Congress. But Congresswoman Beatty says knowing that should not stop the bill from proceeding to a full House vote as soon as possible. Even if it does not pass now, she says she intends to reintroduce it when Congress is better situated with more Democrats in charge (hopefully, after the 2026 midterms).
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing to rail against “any history that shows White people in a bad light,” and so it just received a positive court decision to force the city of Philadelphia and the National Park Service to change their current depiction—in a public monument—of founding father George Washington as a slaveholder, alongside his other more positive contributions to American history.
At a monument at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, city-assigned curators depicted scenes describing George Washington’s living conditions as the nation’s first POTUS, which included examples of Washington’s life on his “cherry tree” plantation as a slave master with nine enslaved people during the time period when he was the first POTUS.
Through an executive order in January 2026, the Trump administration had the exhibit removed and replaced in spite of tremendous public opposition to that action. Trump had called the exhibit improper and inappropriate propaganda and not accurate history (without any evidence, of course, to support his view). He asserted that proper American history could not disparage the involvement of white people. He called scenarios like the George Washington depiction “partisan ideology, not true history” and ordered it taken down.
The city of Philadelphia, claiming it had the legal right to be consulted and to challenge any such order before any public monuments could be changed, even by the federal government, then sued the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service for removing and changing the exhibit unilaterally.
In February of this year, federal District Judge Cynthia Rufe then issued a preliminary injunction that ordered the Trump administration to restore the exhibit. She called the removal of the exhibit with the slaves an attempt to “erase, alter, remove, and hide historical accounts” and said the Trump alterations would give visitors a “false account of this country’s history.”
But on June 18, 2026, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned that injunction, saying that the lower court had wrongly interpreted the city of Philadelphia’s contract claims with the federal government. The court panel suggested that although the city had a standing to sue, the federal case was stronger against that suit, and so it allowed the Trump administration to replace the exhibit without Washington’s slaves being present.
Congresswoman Beatty’s legislation would change that authority. “Real” history, which depicted the good and the bad, including the correct involvement of slavery, slaveholders, and other painful relationships, would all be proper subjects for public demonstrations and public school lessons and depictions of American history.
No more whitewashing. Beatty’s legislation would allow our children to learn the history of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the American story. Good luck to the Democrats in the midterms!
