National Park Service Orders Removal of Quotes at Bunker Hill After Visitor Complains of ‘Woke’ Ideology

After a visitor to the Bunker Hill Monument in Massachusetts complained that a panel contained a quote expressing “woke” feminist ideology, the National Park Service ordered a review of materials at the site. As a result of the review, the Washington Post reported Thursday, the organization ordered the removal of three quotes at the site. The one that drew the initial complaint, referencing women’s suffrage, was not set for removal.

While the panel quotes have not yet been removed, a spokesperson for the Interior Department characterized the removal order to the Post as a “routine exhibit refresh.”

“Through President Trump, we have encouraged Americans to visit our cultural and historic sites and engage in meaningful conversations about the moments that have shaped our country,” the spokesperson Katie Martin said in a statement.

At Bunker HIll, historical displays are accompanied by panels with quotes that reflect on the monument and the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major skirmish of the Revolutionary War. One of the quotes removed came from an 1971 editorial by Vietnam War veterans Arthur Johnson and Bestor Cram written after a three-day anti-war march that ended at the monument. The offending quote reads, “We find, upon reflection, that our duty to our country has not ended … We as Vietnam Veterans, strongly feel that the United States should cease to build memorials to death and begin to glorify life.”

One of the other quotes comes from an 1846 letter to abolitionist newspaper the Liberator, reading, ““As we drew near to Boston, there stood Bunker Hill Monument, towering up towards the heavens, as if in silent, bitter mockery of the millions of slaves guarded by the professed lovers of Liberty, who reared it’s lofty column.”

The last quote came from an 1875 Boston newspaper reading, “Now that a public orator has declared that foreign-born men have no association with the men of the Revolution, it is our duty to show that in love of freedom and loyalty to the republic, the citizens of foreign birth take no second place.” 

Since retaking office last year, President Donald Trump has focused considerable attention on ridding museums, most notably the Smithsonian Institution, of what his administration calls “anti-American ideology.” To that end, he issued an executive order titled  “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” and ordered reviews of Smithsonian materials.

Last year, in April, the Post reported that the National Parks Service had edited dozens of web pages to soften or remove references to slavery, racial division, civil rights, the Jim Crow era, and other parts of American history.