HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. — During tomorrow’s America 433+ Juneteenth Teach-In at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, former National Park Service Ranger Elizabeth Kerwin will share the story of a censored African American history exhibit that was years in the making and was expected to open by tomorrow, Juneteenth, 2026.
The exhibit, Making a Way Out of No Way, was halted when Trump took office, but was designed to tell the story of the African American experience in Harpers Ferry—from enslavement and emancipation to the continuing struggle for freedom and equality. But today, visitors to the designated exhibit space find only an empty room and a renovation sign that has remained in place since 2019.
“On Juneteenth, I want people to think about something that isn’t here,” said Kerwin. “We were on track to open Making a Way Out of No Way by Juneteenth 2026. The exhibit would have honored generations of African Americans whose lives and labor helped shape Harpers Ferry and this nation. Instead, visitors find an empty room. The public deserves to know these stories.”
While most people think about censorship at the NPS as signs coming down, this event serves to remind us that oftentimes, it looks more like something that never went up. The exhibit that never opens, the communications specialist whose job was quietly rescinded, control over social media being handed from parks to bureaucrats in DC, that’s what systematic censorship looks like. “Making a Way Out of No Way” is not just a story about one empty room. It’s a chilling example of how history gets erased before it even has the chance to be told.
Kerwin, who was the Exhibit Planner at Harpers Ferry where she worked for 25 years before pushed into early retirement as a result of DOGE’s targeted bullying last year, will use the empty space as a powerful example of the importance of preserving and sharing the full American story. Over the last year, the Trump administration has pushed more than 25% of park rangers out of the jobs they love and the public service they’ve dedicated their lives to.
For the first time, visitors would have heard their story through the words of Osborne Perry Anderson, the only surviving member of John Brown’sraid to leave a written account. The exhibit would also have told the story of Storer College—one of the first colleges in America open regardless of race or sex. It would have explored how newly freed people built lives, communities, institutions, and businesses here during Reconstruction and beyond.
The exhibit was intended to highlight the lives of African Americans who lived, worked, resisted, and built community in Harpers Ferry, including enslaved people whose presence in the region predates the founding of the United States.
Elizabeth’s remarks will be part of the America 433+ Juneteenth Teach-In, a public event bringing together former park rangers, historians, educators, federal workers, civil rights advocates, and community members to discuss the preservation of public history and the importance of telling a complete and inclusive American story.
At Harpers Ferry, the coalition will move a public call to action by launching a petition urging Congress to fulfill the promise of the National Park Service: protect historical integrity, restore staffing and resources, defend scientific and educational independence, and ensure that national parks can continue telling the full American story. And to reiterate the court ruling’s remedy: return all censored materials to national parks and sites by July 4.
America 433+ takes its name from the more than 433 sites that make up the National Park System, including battlefields, historic sites, monuments, memorials, trails, seashores, and national parks. The campaign brings together Resistance Rangers, Branch 4, Race Forward Action, Public School Strong, and the Zinn Education Project in a growing coalition dedicated to protecting public lands, public memory, and the full American story.
Organizers say the censorship of this exhibit offers a striking reminder that public history requires continued investment, attention, and commitment.
Melissa Dalley, former Park Guide at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site and a member of Resistance Rangers, emphasized the importance of protecting the full historical record:
“Rangers are America’s storytellers and history keepers. We have a duty to preserve our cultural and natural resources in such a way as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations, a duty which is obviously in conflict with this administration’s desire to censor and hide quintessential American stories about slavery & freedom, civil rights, resistance, and reform. These stories are not optional. They are part of the American story. We will not let them be erased from our national parks.”
Deborah Menkart, co-director of the Zinn Education Project, highlighted the importance of teaching people’s history and civic engagement:
“Most of what students have come to expect today – freedom, voting rights, public education, labor protections, and more were not in the original text of the Constitution. Instead, they resulted from people who envisioned a more just society and organized for it. Censoring those stories protects the status quo for those in power – while leaving young people feeling disconnected from history – and therefore their role in civic life today. When instead young people have the opportunity in public parks, schools, and libraries to learn the full story history of the United States, they gain the inspiration and the strategies to shape a just future. That benefits us all.”
Cathy Albisa, Co-Executive Director of Branch 4, explains why preserving the full American story is essential to protecting democracy.
“Juneteenth is a reminder that freedom has always required struggle, and an honest accounting of our past. Park rangers help tell the story of America, a story that cannot be told without confronting the realities of slavery, racial exclusion, and the generations of people who fought to expand democracy and make this country live up to its promises. Public institutions have a responsibility to help us reckon with that history, not hide it. Last week’s federal court ruling ordering the restoration of removed historical and scientific materials confirms what park rangers, historians, educators, racial justice advocates, and civil servants have been warning about since last year: public history belongs to the public, and the National Park Service has both a legal and civic duty to tell the full American story. When stories are erased, delayed, or pushed aside, we lose an opportunity to learn from the past and build a more just future. On Juneteenth, we must recommit ourselves to preserving and sharing that full story—because understanding where we have been is essential to deciding where we go next.”
The park has an average of 2,000 daily visitors that will be given the opportunity to participate and learn together at one of the most consequential sites in American history to offer a different vision of commemoration—one rooted in freedom struggles, democracy, public memory, and civic participation.
America 433+ takes its name from the more than 433 sites that make up the National Parks system, including battlefields, historic sites, monuments, memorials, trails, seashores, and national parks. The campaign brings together Resistance Rangers, Branch 4, Race Forward Action, Public School Strong, and the Zinn Education Project in a growing coalition dedicated to protecting public lands, public memory, and the full American story.
America 433+ Juneteenth Teach-In: Defending Public History and the Full American Story
Friday, June 19, 2026
1 PM – 4 PM
Speaker Program starts: 1:30 PM
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
171 Shoreline Dr, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Anna Bakalis
Comms@Branch-4.org
323-770-4477
