Whose Story is Saved?

Saxophonist and vocalist Louis Jordan was born on July 8, 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas. Jordan relocated to Philadelphia in the early 1930s. While living here, he joined the Charlie Gaines band. In 1936, Jordan moved to New York City where he played saxophone in Chick Webb’s orchestra for two years.

He formed his own band, Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, in 1938. Jordan wrote and recorded “Caldonia” in 1945. The rest is history. “Caldonia” was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2013.

Jordan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. On the centennial of his birth, the U.S. Postage Service issued a stamp memorializing “the King of the Jukebox.”

An iconic photo of Jordan is in the Duncan P. Schiedt Photograph Collection of the National Museum of American History.

NMAH is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. Jordan was on my mind as I read the 162-page report, “Saving America’s Story,” that the White House Domestic Policy Council released on the Fourth of July.

When it comes to American history, ain’t nobody at the White House but some chickens. President Trump and his sycophants are too chicken to accept the full story of the nation’s complex history.

The propagandists accuse NMAH of “ideological capture” and an “anti-white agenda”:

This anti-white agenda also helps explain why NMAH seeks to erase Christopher Columbus, the Founding Fathers, and the Pilgrims from American history. Portraying such history and historical figures at all, no matter how pivotal, let alone accurately, would be, in the eyes of NMAH, to perpetuate the oppressive “white supremacy culture” that the Smithsonian and broader museum profession is currently working so hard to undo.

In an email to staff, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III disputed the report’s characterization:

While there will always be room for improvement, this report is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History. At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy, and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story. As public servants and the keepers of this institution, we are charged with helping a nation find understanding, hope, and clarity and as part of that duty, we are dedicated to excellence, reflection, and growth.

We remain focused on what grounds us: a steadfast commitment to scholarship, nonpartisanship, independence, accuracy, and integrity. For nearly 180 years, the Smithsonian has worked alongside partners across government—from the White House to Congress to our governing Board of Regents—guided by our enduring mission to increase and diffuse knowledge. That purpose remains: to pursue knowledge with rigor and to serve the American public with clarity and care.

The Organization of American Historians released a blistering statement:

“Saving America’s Story” is part of a broad attempt to return the nation to a vision of America that never actually existed and that serves the ends of superficial patriotism. The White House seeks to impose a narrow, singular, and celebratory narrative of American greatness populated by a mythologized set of heroes. Crucially, the proposed narrative would erase the conflict, struggle, and diversity—the complexity—that have always defined the American experience. The report insists that history itself is essentially, for Americans, a special and providential story of triumph.

Make no mistake: the report represents an attempt to turn back the clock to a time when U.S. history was taught as the history of white Christian men who conquered a continent, U.S. military leaders who rarely lost a battle, and U.S. presidents who were single-handedly responsible for national greatness, all under the cover of “anti-DEI” and “anti-woke” crusading.

If the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History adopts the approaches recommended in the new report, the majority of Americans, including women, workers, people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and more, will not see themselves represented. America’s rich and diverse history will be reduced to shallow and simple-minded stories and tropes. Reports of this ilk reveal less about the museums they target than about the anxieties of their authors. They reveal the White House’s fear that an accurate and complete telling of American history that includes hard lessons alongside proud ones will somehow puncture a nostalgic and fragile self-image of American exceptionalism. The report’s complaints that National Museum of American History exhibits are insufficiently celebratory are a demand for history according to a single political party’s line; pretending to call the report a defense of accuracy or a restoration of narrative balance is both disingenuous and dangerous for American democracy.

The report is available here.

Trump’s Planned Sculpture Garden Strikes A Discordant Note

President Trump and his sycophants have eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs, gutted the Voting Rights Act, undermined public education, attacked Black studies, and erased Black history at National Park Service sites.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth removed the portrait of Daniel “Chappie” James Jr., the nation’s first Black four-star general, from the Air Force Art Gallery. UFC fighter Josh Hokit made a racist comment about Michelle Obama on the White House lawn.

During his recent appearance on “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg asked Vice President JD Vance: “What did Black people do to this administration that has allowed it to, really, stigmatize folks of color?”

For Black people whose descendants were brought here in the bowels of slave ships, our cardinal sin is in our skin.

Black historical figures, who fought for everything that Trump is dismantling, are included in his proposed “National Garden of American Heroes.” Trump’s garden would feature statues of notable Americans, including Muhummad Ali, Crispus Attucks, Frederick Douglass, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Phillis Wheatley.

Earlier this month, a coalition of advocacy, conservation and historical preservation organizations, including the National Parks Conservation Association, DC Preservation League and the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, filed a lawsuit to halt the project. The Washington Post reported:

A coalition of Washington-area preservation and cultural heritage organizations on Monday sued the Trump administration over President Donald Trump’s plan to remake national parkland with a massive statuary garden.

The groups said that Trump’s planned “National Garden of American Heroes” — which the president has said would feature life-size statues of roughly 250 Americans and be built in West Potomac Park — must be halted until Congress authorizes the project.

[…]

“Congress put clear laws in place to safeguard the National Mall from new construction and to ensure the public has a meaningful voice in decisions about landscapes that belong to them, as space open to all,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, president and CEO for the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement.

The sculpture park would also feature nine Black musicians.

Aretha Franklin sang at Barack Obama’s first inauguration.

There “ain’t no way” Aretha would want to be included in Trump’s vanity project. The Queen of Soul “would rather drink muddy water, sleep out in a hollow log.”

Like Aretha, Ray Charles supported the Civil Rights Movement. In a tribute to Brother Ray at the White House, then-President Barack Obama said:

Now, in those days, Black musicians were expected to play in the Jim Crow South. But in 1961 – the year I was born – Ray refused to play for a segregated audience in Augusta, Georgia. He was sued for breach of contract, but he continued boycotting segregated venues and became an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Genuis of Soul didn’t suffer fools. Ray Charles would tell Trump to “hit the road Jack.”

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

With the clock ticking, attorneys for the “Trump Kennedy Center” filed a last-ditch motion to halt implementation of U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper’s order to remove President Trump’s name from the building’s façade by June 12, 2026.

The motion was denied.

A little over four hours later, Justice Department lawyers filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. They asked the. Court “to rule on that request no later than 7 PM.”

In a per curiam order issued at 7:09 p.m., the Court denied the Defendants’ motion for an immediate administrative stay.

Amid chants of “Take It Down,” the construction crew built the scaffolding. The snail’s pace seemed to be by design. One worker was on the phone at midnight.

Was Charles Matthew Floca on the other end of the line? At 11:56 p.m., the Defendants filed a motion for a one-day extension of time to file a declaration certifying compliance.

The defendants were given a 12-hour extension. The workers began removing Trump’s name from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts on June 13, 2026 around 3:00 a.m.

The defendants confirmed they removed signage “that purports to rename the Kennedy Center after President Trump” in the notice of compliance filed around 11:00 a.m.

It is said that history repeats itself. The first time as tragedy, the second as farce. The Kennedy Center is across from the Watergate complex which is forever associated with President Nixon’s coverup of a “third-rate burglary attempt.”

A third-rate president covered up the removal of his name from the façade of the Kennedy Center behind a tarp.

Donald L. Trump’s name was removed one day before his 80th birthday. Happy birthday, Mr. President.

Kennedy Center Name Change

William Shakespeare asked, “What’s in a name?” If the name is Donald Trump, it is synonymous with chaos, cronyism, crooks, corruption, coverups and cancellations.

In the wake of U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper’s order, the Kennedy Center’s general counsel directed staff to “immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and other documents to reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” or “Kennedy Center.” The changes must be completed by June 12, 2026.

The illegal name change prompted jazz drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd to cancel his Christmas Eve concert. Trump’s crony filed a retaliatory lawsuit. In a letter to Redd, then-Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell wrote this is “your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.”

On June 5, 2026, the case was dismissed. The Washington Post reported:

A judge on Friday threw out the Kennedy Center’s breach-of-contract lawsuit against a jazz musician who withdrew from a performance after the venue’s board voted to rename the building after President Donald Trump.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Tanya Jones Bosier said center officials failed to show they had made a legally binding agreement with Chuck Redd to perform at the venue’s annual Christmas Eve concert, as he had in years past. Redd told the center he chose to bow out because of “the defiant and illegal name change happening to the Kennedy Center.”

Judge Jones Bosier said the lawsuit violated D.C.’s anti-SLAPP law (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation Act) which is designed to protect people from meritless lawsuits filed by powerful entities to intimidate and silence critics.

Redd’s lawyer, Lisa J. Banks, said in a statement:

The Center sued Mr. Redd because he publicly and rightly objected to adding Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, a living memorial to former President John F. Kennedy. The lawsuit against Mr. Redd was political retribution, pure and simple, by the Trump Kennedy Center, and the Court correctly saw it as such in dismissing the case with prejudice.

Trump slapped his name on the living memorial to John F. Kennedy. Grennell was slapped down by the court. The “Trump-Kennedy Center” was ordered to pay Redd’s attorneys’ fees and costs.

Let the music play.

Judge Orders Trump’s Name Removed from Kennedy Center

In a blow to President’s Trump’s fragile ego, a federal judge ordered his name removed from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center was unlawfully renamed. Judge Cooper ordered Trump’s name removed from the front portico of the building, website, physical or digital signage, and official materials within 14 days of the date of his order:

The Court has concluded that the Board overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming the Kennedy Center after President Trump… As a result, the Kennedy Center Board’s decision to rename the Center, along with its decision to affix President Trump’s name to the building’s façade, violate Congress’s unequivocal mandate. As stated at the outset, Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.

The lawsuit was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member of the board of trustees. In a press release, Rep. Beatty said:

Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law. The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.

Congresswoman Beatty took a victory lap on X/Twitter.

In a Truth Social post, President Trump had an epic meltdown in which he threw in the towel. Trump said he has “instructed the Department of Commerce to make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution, giving them the responsibility for its Operation, Maintenance, and Management.”

Trump followed up his meltdown with an epic whine:

[Judge Cooper]… decided, unprecedentedly, to not allow a desperately needed Building Renovation to go forward. On top of that, he said, “Rip his name off the Building, he’s got 20 days to do so,” even though a large Board of some of the most distinguished people in the Country voted unanimously to put the name up.

Whatever, dude.

Judge Cooper’s order and Trump’s capitulation happened on the 109th anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s birth. Happy heavenly birthday, JFK.