Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) released the following statement after President Trump issued an executive order relating to the Smithsonian Institution and calling for the replacement of memorials and monuments removed since 2020, largely Confederate war memorials often installed in the twentieth century during the Jim Crow era.

“As Americans, we have a long and deep and complicated past.  We have so much to be proud of.  Our American story is one of independence and ingenuity and imagination.  But in our story there are things that we are not proud of, moments where we failed each other as fellow citizens and fellow human beings.  And those failures and their legacy is part of our history, too.  We need to know and understand that history.  All of it.  Indeed, there is nothing more American than seeking a fuller understanding of the past so that we can, in the future, continue the work of the founders of this country to build a more perfect union.

“President Trump’s executive order titled ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History’ is an affront.  It is an affront to the idea of understanding and learning from our past, dismissing historical perspectives as “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”  It is an affront to generations of Americans—past and present—from every background whose stories matter and deserve to be told.  It is an affront to generations of Americans who have worked together to acknowledge and overcome wrongs in our past.  And it is a danger to our country: a revisionist and reductive rewriting of history that undermines the unity that comes from our shared understanding of the past and our shared effort to build a better future for all Americans.”