African American History Museum Director on Leave as Trump Targets Smithsonian

Kevin Young, the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., has been on personal leave since March 14, and will continue to be out of office indefinitely, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the news on Wednesday.

The Post reported that a museum spokesperson said Young would be out for an “undetermined period.” Young has been director of the museum, one of many run by the Smithsonian Institution, since 2021.

The institution is currently being led by Shanita Brackett, its associate director of operations. Per the Post, the announcement of Young’s indefinite leave was only made internally.

His leave began before President Donald Trump issued an executive order in which he targeted the Smithsonian Institution, whose museums also include the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among other art museums.

In that order, Trump denounced what a fact sheet described as “anti-American ideology” within the Smithsonian’s galleries. He specifically took aim at an exhibition about race, monuments, and sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and appeared to take issue with texts issued by the NMAAHC that labeled “hard work” and “individualism” as being part of “White culture.”

“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn—not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” Trump wrote in his executive order, which he issued on March 27. He later issued a separate order in which he suggested he may make cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal organization that provides funding to museum projects.

While it is unclear what effect these executive orders will have, it is apparent that museums and organizations in Washington, D.C. are going through changes in response to the demands of the Trump administration. The National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution both disbanded their DEI departments, and the National Endowment for the Arts closed a small grant program focused on underfunded communities.