Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, president/CEO of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), is mobilizing a national response to what she called a deliberate effort by the Trump administration to erase Black history and dismantle long-standing institutions.
“Our ancestors have seen racism before,” Bradley said on Black Press USA’s Let It Be Known news program. “But they haven’t seen this level of foolishness in the White House that is outright anti-law. What we’re seeing now is lawlessness.”
NCNW has adopted a ‘Three C Strategy’: consumer action, constituent engagement, and commitment aimed at protecting Black institutions and advancing economic power. That includes defending NCNW’s historic headquarters, the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House in Washington, which Bradley warned could be targeted by the Department of the Interior.
Across the city, civil rights veteran Dr. Frank Smith is fighting to complete the expansion of the African American Civil War Memorial Museum. Budget freezes have stalled progress. “We survived slavery, Jim Crow, and the Ku Klux Klan. We’ll survive this,” Smith said. “African American soldiers helped Lincoln save this union. Now, we need to finish what we started.”
Meanwhile, Black Press USA initially confirmed through exclusive sources that the Trump administration had begun dismantling exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, including the iconic Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in exhibit. The display honors four North Carolina A&T students who sparked a national wave of protests in 1960. However, following an update from Smithsonian officials, it was clarified that the lunch counter exhibit will remain at what is affectionately called the ‘Blacksonian.’ Smithsonian officials confirmed: “The National Museum of African American History and Culture has two Greensboro counter stools in our collection. Since the opening, one stool has always been and continues to be on display.” The original lunch counter itself is on display at the National Museum of American History, where it has been for many years.
The history stems from four Black male students from North Carolina A&T who were denied service at a Woolworth’s counter and subsequently attacked after sitting at the Whites-only counter. Their refusal to leave ignited a wave of lunch counter sit-ins across the South, becoming a major flashpoint in the Civil Rights Movement. The clarification comes at a time when Vice President J.D. Vance was appointed to the Smithsonian board to oversee what he and others perceive as American history.
“This president is a master of distraction and is destroying what it took 250 years to build,” said Rep. Alma Adams of North Carolina. “You can take down exhibits, close buildings, ban books, and try to change history, but we will never forget.”
Officials also notified Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, pastor of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, that his loaned Bible and a historic volume by George W. Williams would be returned. Emails dated April 10 and 15 confirmed the transfer.
Bradley said a national mobilization is set for May 3 in Washington, D.C., urging people to join the Smithsonian and support endangered cultural institutions. “This is not random,” she said. “This is consistent. This is deliberate.”
NCNW is also countering recent executive orders eliminating civil rights protections and gutting diversity programs. “We’re issuing a newsletter to respond to every executive order so that Black women understand what this water hose is all about,” Bradley said.
She also called out Target’s retreat from its 2020 diversity pledges. “They were the leaders in DEI. But now they’re scared. We need to push them to do the right thing anyway, even if the words change.”
With $1.7 trillion in annual Black consumer spending (half from Black women) Bradley said economic power must be leveraged. “That kind of economic power should never be underestimated. The Black Press is our Underground Railroad. If we don’t invest in the Black Press, we lose our Underground Railroad—period.”
