Prominent pastor notified books loaned to African American museum may be returned amid review
Earlier DU thread: Smithsonian begins removing exhibits, artifacts from African American History Museum
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Source: Associated Press
Prominent pastor notified books loaned to African American museum may be returned amid review
By MATT BROWN
Updated 12:40 AM EDT, May 2, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — A veteran activist of the Civil Rights Movement said he was notified by the Smithsonian Institution that items he loaned to the National Museum of African American History and Culture may be returned, amid a potential review of the museum’s collections ordered by President Donald Trump.
Rev. Amos C. Brown, pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, loaned two books to the Smithsonian, which have been displayed since the museum opened nearly a decade ago. One of his items is an edition of “The History of the Negro Race in America” by George Washington Williams, which was written in 1880 and is among the first books to document Black American history and racism in the U.S. The other is a Bible that Brown carried during protests alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The reasons given for the items’ return initially raised alarms that the Trump administration had begun to make visible changes to a museum considered to be a crown jewel of Black American culture.
Recent reports that the museum has already removed exhibits documenting the civil rights struggle are false, the Smithsonian said. The White House had no comment for this story.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/amos-brown-trump-black-smithsonian-display-removal-ae65cc67ae9749a07bcf528a684d89fa