A250: A New Battlefield in the Culture Wars
During the past 75 years, historians have developed a growing appreciation for the significance of the ongoing American struggles for civil rights and civil liberties. Following several decades of civil rights scholarship published in books and journal articles, the founding of a number of museums dedicated to civil rights and Black history, beginning with the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis in 1991 and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute a year later, created an increasingly valuable source for public engagement with the civil rights struggle. At the same time, the expansion and refinement of National Parks Service exhibits on race and civil rights added to the mix of public resources, helping to spark and sustain the rapidly growing phenomenon of "civil rights tourism."
Over the past three decades, millions of Americans have taken advantage of and learned from these resources at scores of museums and hundreds of other civil rights sites. Unfortunately, the culture war against DEI has led to widespread censorship that threatens the intellectual integrity and independence of vital educational institutions, casting doubt on the future of free expression and other democratic ideals.
Raymond Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History emeritus at the University of South Florida. Educated at Princeton and Brandeis, he is the author or editor of twelve books, including Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, The Sound
of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America, Arthur Ashe: A Life, and John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community. As a public historian, he has been a consultant for many of the nation's major civil rights museums and several PBS civil rights documentaries, including American Experience's Freedom Riders (2011), American Masters' Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands (2022), and W. E. B. DuBois: Rebel with a Cause (2026).
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