Harriet Tubman's Return!

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After public backlash and media attention, the National Park Service reversed its decision to remove Harriet Tubman's image and quote from its Underground Railroad webpage in February. Digital archiving tools revealed the changes, which historians condemned as "offensive and absurd" attempts to minimize Tubman's historical contributions.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, guys, we have an update on the story that
I just reported about HarrietTubman being removed from the
National Parks website, parkServices website.
They just returned it back.
They just went ahead andreversed everything that they
did, and now Harriet Tubman'simage, as well as her famous

(00:22):
quote, is back on their website.
So how to give credit whereit's due?
I personally think they gotcaught and called out, so they
just had to go ahead and reverseit.
So now what they're saying isthe agency, uh, is that this was
done without approval from topleadership, right?

(00:43):
So this thing was removed, um,and nobody knew about it, like
it was like something that justhappened.
So, um, the the imageoriginally contained like a
large picture of, uh, harrytubman, as well as her quote
about being a conductor in theunderground railroad and the
contribution or experiences, andfor some odd reason, it just

(01:06):
all just disappeared, right, butit was a screen grab that was
made by a website called the WayBack Machine that showed the
difference between the updatedversion without Harriet Tubman
on it and the older version thathad everything on it, and this
is what kind of prompted thisstory.
So the Washington Post firstreported on this on Sunday and

(01:29):
it prompted backlash fromhistorians and educators.
And when asked about therestoration of Tubman's image
and quote to the page, theNational Park Service's
spokesperson told cnn changes tothe underground railroad page
on the national park serviceswebsite were made without

(01:50):
approval from mps, leadershipnor department leadership.
The web page was immediatelyrestored to its original content
.
The updated version, withouttubman's quote or image, had
been live since at least was itlike last, at least by february
21st it was.
And this is what the uh waybackmachine was showing uh.

(02:12):
The recent reduction of tubman'spresence on the web page is
coming after several otherprominent changes to the
government website.
As the administration trump'sadministration enacted a
sweeping anti-DEI agenda,incurred criticism from some who
said the changes minimizedTubman's crucial contributions

(02:33):
to the Underground Railroad.
The abolitionist is creditedwith helping free scores of
enslaved people during the CivilWar period.
One historian now forgive me ifI messed up this last name,
this is Fergus Fergus Bordwichhad called the edits both
offensive and absurd.
Before the page was revertedMonday afternoon, the NPS

(02:56):
spokesperson defended thechanges, telling CNN the idea
that a couple web edits somehowinvalidated the National Park
Service's commitment to tellingcomplex and challenging
historical narratives iscompletely false.
The spokesperson highlightedthe two National Historical
Parks named for Tubman as theUnderground Railroad's best

(03:18):
known conductor and we celebrateher as a deeply spiritual woman
who lived her ideals anddedicated her life to freedom.
And, like I said, I think theyjust got caught and called out
on it.
This has been done sincemid-February and nobody knew
about it is beyond me.

(03:40):
They said there is a separateNational Park Service page
dedicated to Tubman, who wasborn into slavery, as we know,
in Maryland.
Before fleeing to Philadelphia,she returned to Maryland over a
dozen times to help free otherslaves, guiding them through the
Underground Railroad, a secretnetwork of routes and safe
houses.
The park services web page ontubman does not seem, does not

(04:03):
seem to have been changed sincejanuary 28th of this year.
So again, guys, it's an update.
Um, I think that when it becamea a big issue was before it
became a big issue, when it wasabout to be big, because it's
just happened yesterday and theychanged it today.

(04:23):
So now, you see, you know thatthis is pretty much something
that they might have did andthought we can just sneak it in,
just like I said in theprevious video, we can just
sneak this in and nobody willnotice it, but applaud those
that did, those at the waybackmachine, um website, who did the
comparison of the two websitesboth now and then from january

(04:49):
to february, to show you howthings were different, and
making that public so thateverybody can see it and make
noise about it.
Once again, guys, that was justa quick turnaround.
I'm just going to say, like youknow, I really applaud them for
actually putting that out there.
And again, please get thatlibrary up.

(05:10):
This stuff happens.
Nobody said anything.
This would have just keptrocking.
So again it's Carl Girard fromthe Only One mic podcast.
Please hit those like sharesubscribes.
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