{"id":93068,"date":"2025-03-13T14:10:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T18:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/?p=93068"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:18:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:18:32","slug":"aha-oah-joint-statement-on-federal-censorship-of-american-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/news\/aha-oah-joint-statement-on-federal-censorship-of-american-history\/","title":{"rendered":"AHA\u2013OAH Joint Statement on Federal Censorship of American History"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American Historical Association (AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) have released a joint statement condemning \u201crecent efforts to censor historical content on federal government websites, at many public museums, and across a wide swath of government resources that include essential data.\u201d \u201cOur professional ethics<\/a> require that \u2018all historians believe in honoring the integrity of the historical record,\u2019\u201d the statement reads. \u201cWe expect our nation\u2019s leadership to adhere to this same basic standard and we will continue to monitor, protest, and place in the historical record any censorship of American historical facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, 43 organizations have signed on to the statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is only one aspect of the AHA\u2019s advocacy<\/a> on behalf of historians employed by the federal government. Among other efforts, we are engaging with federal historians on how best to support them and their agencies, closely monitoring legislation and executive orders and tracking job losses for historians, and coordinating with partner organizations like the OAH on critical advocacy to support historians and history education at the federal and state levels.<\/p>\n

\n

March 13, 2025<\/p>\n

Joint Statement on Federal Censorship of American History<\/strong><\/p>\n

The American Historical Association (AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) condemn recent efforts to censor historical content on federal government websites, at many public museums, and across a wide swath of government resources that include essential data. New policies that purge words, phrases, and content that some officials deem suspect on ideological grounds constitute a systemic campaign to distort, manipulate, and erase significant parts of the historical record. Recent directives insidiously prioritize narrow ideology over historical research, historical accuracy, and the actual experiences of Americans.<\/p>\n

As the institution chartered by the US Congress for \u201cthe promotion of historical studies\u201d and \u201cin the interest of American history, and of history in America,\u201d the American Historical Association must speak out when the nation\u2019s leadership wreaks havoc with that history. So, too, must the OAH, as the organization committed to promoting \u201cexcellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history.\u201d It is bad enough to forget the past; it is even worse to intentionally deny the public access to what we remember, have documented, and have expended public resources to disseminate.<\/p>\n

At this writing, the full range of historical distortions and deletions is yet to be discerned. Federal entities and institutions subject to federal oversight and funding are hastily implementing revisions to their resources in an attempt to comply with the \u201cDear Colleague\u201d letter issued by the Department of Education\u2019s Office for Civil Rights and executive orders such as \u201cDefending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.\u201d These changes range from scrubbing words and acronyms from websites to papering over interpretive panels in museums. Some alterations, such as those related to topics like the Tuskegee Airmen and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, have been hurriedly reversed in response to public outcry. Others remain. The scrubbing of words and acronyms from the Stonewall National Monument web page, for instance, distorts the site\u2019s history by denying the roles of transgender and queer people in movements for rights and liberation. This distortion of history renders the past unrecognizable to the people who lived it and useless to those who seek to learn from the past.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether federal agencies are preserving the original versions of these materials for future reference or research. Articles written by historians for the National Park Service, for example, have been altered, and in some instances deleted, because they examine history with references to gender or sexuality. These revisions were made without the authors\u2019 knowledge or consent, and without public acknowledgment that the original articles had been revised. The AHA\u2019s Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct<\/em> is clear: \u201cHonoring the historical record also means leaving a clear trail for subsequent historians to follow. Any changes to a primary source or published secondary work, whether digital or print, should be noted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Words matter. Precision matters. Context matters. Expertise matters. Democracy matters. We can neither deny what happened nor invent things that did not happen. Recent executive orders and other federal directives alter the public record in ways that are contrary to historical evidence. They result in deceitful narratives of the past that violate the professional standards of our discipline. When government entities, or scholars themselves, censor the use of particular words, they in effect censor historical evidence. Censorship and distortion erase people and institutions from history.<\/p>\n

The AHA\u2019s Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct<\/em><\/a> makes clear that historians can neither misrepresent their sources nor omit evidence because it \u201cruns counter\u201d to their interpretations. The OAH and AHA condemn the rejection of these professional standards. Classifying collective historical scholarship as \u201ctoxic indoctrination\u201d or \u201cdiscriminatory equity ideology\u201d dismisses the knowledge generated by the deep research of generations of historians. It violates the training, expertise, and purposes of historians as well as their responsibility to public audiences.<\/p>\n

Our professional ethics require that \u201call historians believe in honoring the integrity of the historical record.\u201d We expect our nation\u2019s leadership to adhere to this same basic standard, and we will continue to monitor, protest, and place in the historical record any censorship of American historical facts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The following organizations have signed on to this statement:<\/p>\n

African Studies Association
\nAlliance for Texas History
\nAmerican Academy of Religion
\nAmerican Association for State and Local History
\nAmerican Federation of Teachers
\nAmerican Journalism Historians Association
\nAmerican Society for Environmental History
\nAmerican Studies Association
\nAsian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation
\nAssociation for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
\nAssociation for the Study of African American Life and History
\nAssociation of University Presses
\nCollege Art Association
\nConference on Asian History
\nEducation for All
\nFrench Colonial Historical Society
\nHistorians for Peace and Democracy
\nH-Net Executive Council
\nImmigration and Ethnic History Society
\nLabor and Working-Class History Association
\nLGBTQ+ Historians Association
\nNational Council for the Social Studies
\nNational Council on Public History
\nNetwork of Concerned Historians
\nNorth American Conference on British Studies
\nNorth American Society for Oceanic History
\nNorth American Society for Sport History
\nNorwegian Historical Association
\nOral History Association
\nPEN America
\nPolish American Historical Association
\nRoyal Netherlands Historical Society
\nSocial Welfare History Group
\nSociety for Historians of American Foreign Relations
\nSociety for Historians of the Early Republic
\nSociety for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
\nSociety for US Intellectual History
\nSociety of Architectural Historians
\nSouthern Association for Women Historians
\nUrban History Association
\nWestern History Association
\nWestern Society for French History
\nWorld History Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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