President Donald J. Trump will never erase Black history, even though he has banned more than 300 books from the U.S. Naval Academy, changed the names of Black historic sites, and is seeking to resurrect and restore racist Confederate military statues, Dr. Julianne Malveaux told the Chicago Crusader.
Malveaux spoke extensively on Trump’s earlier Executive Order 14151, which ended “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” and his Executive Order 14173, which aimed to end illegal discrimination and restore merit-based opportunity. Trump targeted libraries and museums with threats of mass layoffs or firings, and even threatened to yank their funding if they didn’t get rid of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.
At the end of March, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that provides grant funding, placed its entire staff on administrative leave, according to NPR.
She referred to Trump’s alleged firing of Black individuals in the military, such as Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Biden. Brown was the second African American to serve in that capacity.
Trump also reportedly ordered federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration (SBA), to remove files pertaining to women, people of color, and those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Malveaux, an economist and author, said, “We are looking at name changes on historic sites that basically don’t exist.”
She was offended that Trump allegedly removed the name of Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran and civil rights leader, from Arlington National Cemetery.
Trump, a five-time draft dodger, also reportedly removed the name of Milton Lee Olive III, the first African American to have received a Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.
Olive, an 18-year-old from Englewood, spotted a live grenade on October 22, 1965, during a search-and-destroy mission in Vietnam, placed the device on his stomach, allowing it to explode. He saved the lives of four comrades.
“To remove the names of Black military people is to say we are erasing you,” said Malveaux. “To talk about re-establishing Confederate history, like General Braxton Bragg, who was a brutal slave owner,” Malveaux stated.
“This administration is dedicated to erasing Black people,” said Malveaux. When told that if Black history is erased, America is also erased, Malveaux stated, “They don’t believe that. If you look hard at the United States of America, were it not for the labor of enslaved people… that’s a very uncomfortable thing to say to white supremacists.”
“When they realize that their prosperity lies at the hands of Black people, they can’t stand it, so they have to simply erase it,” she stated.
Malveaux said young people are not being taught Black history, and many school libraries are removing Black history books.
She referred to James E. Ryan, president of the University of Virginia, who resigned due to pressure from the Trump administration to drop his Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program. “They said he had too much diversity. He closed the Diversity Office. What else could he do?” asked Malveaux.
She said it was a similar incident at Harvard University because the Trump administration wanted to eliminate diversity there as well. Harvard sued the government after Trump froze their $2.2 billion in funding. Harvard won that lawsuit.
“The funny thing is, they are so deficient that they go on AI to use the word diversity to figure out where diversity is still existent,” she noted.
Ironically, she said, there was a young man who was doing a study on biodiversity—ecology, different plants. “His grant is under review. That’s how silly it is,” she stated.
When told that Liberty University co-authored Project 2025, Malveaux said that is a conservative university and that the Heritage Foundation is the driver of Project 2025. “Many of them are appointees of this president. They are basically laying out his projects.”
“If you look at Project 2025, everything he is doing is what he said he would do, like cutting Medicaid and requiring a higher work requirement to get their Medicaid.”
When reminded that Trump sleeps in the White House, which was built by slaves, Malveaux said, “He needs to acknowledge that. I never use the term ‘the White House’ again. It is the House that enslaved people built.”
