The National Park Service (NPS) has restored information about abolitionist Harriet Tubman to its Underground Railroad webpage after unauthorized edits removed her quote and altered descriptions of slavery.
Between Feb. 11 and Feb. 21, someone modified the webpage dedicated to the network that helped enslaved people escape to freedom.
The changes eliminated a prominent Tubman quote: “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
The edited version replaced this powerful firsthand account with stamps highlighting racial cooperation and reframed the Underground Railroad as “one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement.” References to slavery and African Americans were pushed further down the page.
“Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service’s website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor department leadership,” NPS spokeswoman Rachel Pawlitz confirmed to Axios.
By Tuesday, the original content and Tubman’s quote had been fully restored to their prominent positions.
This incident follows similar content modifications on government websites since the beginning of the second Trump administration, which has prioritized removing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content from government communications.
Last month, information about baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s military service briefly disappeared from the Defense Department website before being restored.
Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot explained that when website changes extend beyond the department’s directive against DEI, “those changes are corrected.”
The controversy raises questions about content oversight on federal websites and how agencies balance new administration priorities with historical accuracy. Supporters of the administration’s anti-DEI stance argue that government sites should focus on unifying narratives, while critics contend that removing references to slavery sanitizes history and diminishes understanding of the Underground Railroad’s purpose.
The National Park Service’s quick restoration of the original content suggests agencies are working to maintain historical integrity while navigating new policy directions.
Read more: Harriet Tubman info on Underground Railroad web page was erased in error, NPS officials say
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