The Trump-Vance administration is attempting to erase history and science from our national parks. They have been censoring and removing exhibits in parks across the country – from Glacier National Park to Fort Sumter to Independence Hall – that discuss the history of slavery and enslaved people, civil rights, treatment of Indigenous peoples, climate science, and more.

National parks are America’s largest classroom and deserve to be protected. On behalf of a coalition, Democracy Forward is suing to challenge this censorship, hold the administration accountable, and protect the benefits national parks offer all who visit.

We need your help to get the word out. Join us in sharing how visiting and learning from a national park impacted your life, and post a video on social media with the hashtag #OurParksOurHistory.

We are asking fans of America’s national parks to record their own videos answering the prompt: How has visiting, and learning from, a national park impacted your life?

• Videos should be filmed vertically, and should aim to be no longer than 60-90 seconds.
• We encourage you to film at a national park site, their own favorite nature or history spot, or even simply at the kitchen table.
• Share the video on social media using the hashtag #OurParksOurHistory.

Video shared will be amplified and shared by Democracy Forward and other coalition partners.

In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order directing the rewriting and sanitization of American history and science at national parks. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum then issued a secretary’s order that launched the implementation of the president’s directive, forcing NPS staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant U.S. history and scientific knowledge.

Read examples of how censorship is affecting parks, history and science at locations across the country.

On February 17, a coalition of organizations united to challenge the policy that is actively erasing history and science from America’s largest classroom – our national parks. The coalition challenging the censorship policy’s implementation includes the National Parks Conservation Association, American Association for State and Local History, Association of National Park Rangers, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Society for Experiential Graphic Design, and Union of Concerned Scientists. The coalition is represented in the matter by Democracy Forward.

• America’s national parks are a living classroom, teaching millions of visitors about a wide variety of stories at more than 430 national park sites throughout the United States.
• Secretary Burgum’s effort to erase history and science in our national parks violates federal law, and is a disgrace that neither honors our country’s legacy nor its future.
• The often conflicting, contradictory and confusing statements issued by the Interior Department in an attempt to implement the president’s censorship directive, about what materials at parks are under review and what signs, films, books, or brochures must be removed, make clear that the department ignored well-established principles and legal requirements when seeking to censor information at national parks.
• This censorship undermines the National Park Service’s mission to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources of the United States and to provide educational interpretation grounded in scholarship, evidence, and professional expertise not political ideology.
• The unlawful implementation of the president’s executive order:
  • ignores the unique role national parks play in educating people about the history of the United States,
  • neglects the impact of environmental developments on national treasures, and
  • contradicts the laws creating the national park system, service and otherwise governing national parks.