In The Histories, Kerry James Marshall paints not only the traumas of enslavement but also the difficult truths surrounding African intermediaries who helped fuel the transatlantic slave trade.

In August, the White House released a list of Smithsonian museums, singling out the National Museum of African American History and Culture for what it called an excessive focus on ‘how bad slavery was.’ Exhibit texts using terms such as systemic racism were flagged for correction. When curation is dictated not by evidence and scholarship but by political decree, it slides into censorship. Regional museums like ours exist to ensure these stories remain whole, honest, and alive.