The Underground Railroad museum is suing the Trump administration, saying it canceled a grant because of race
The Underground Railroad museum in upstate New York alleged in court Friday that the Trump administration illegally cut its federal grant because of race, pointing to President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle diversity-focused efforts.
The Underground Railroad Education Center, in Albany NY, says in its lawsuit that the National Endowment for the Humanities’ the cancellation of the $250,000 grant was opinion and racially discriminatory, in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments, respectively.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks the money back.
The lawsuit cited Trump’s January 2025 executive order that required federal agencies to end any activities that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within 60 days. The 40-page brief outlined 1,400 grants that were terminated as of April 2025 “due to their conflict with President Trump’s EOs and the new agency priorities adopted after them.”
Nina Loewenstein, an attorney for the museum, told NBC News that there was “no legal basis” for the grant’s withdrawal, adding that it was “clearly erasing things associated with the Black race.”
Loewenstein and a team of attorneys volunteering for the case through Lawyers for Good Government, an organization that provides free legal services in civil and civil rights cases, argue that the Underground Railroad Education Center is one of thousands of organizations illegally targeted by the Trump administration.
“Many statements by the current leadership of the Executive Branch reflect overt and coded racism that supports white supremacy and denigrates Black history in America,” the lawsuit said.
It added that the administration “systematically targets grants and programs that seek to increase public understanding of black history and culture.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday evening.
The Trump administration has targeted museums and exhibits across the United States in an effort to enforce the president’s anti-DEI orders. A judge ordered administrators last month to restore a slavery exhibit in Philadelphia after pieces of artwork and informational displays were removed from the Presidential Palace.
The administration also changed which days Americans can visit national parks for free this year in a November order, removing the Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth. In August, it called for a comprehensive review of the Smithsonian’s museum exhibits, materials and operations to ensure they fit the president’s vision of history.
The Underground Railroad Education Center is based in the home of Stephen and Harriet Myers, abolitionists who helped thousands escape slavery in the decades leading up to the Civil War, according to the museum’s founders, Paul and Mary Liz Stewart.
The Stewarts began working on Underground Railroad research in the late 1990s, after Mary Liz, a fifth-grade teacher at the time, heard from her students that they knew almost nothing about the subject despite the deep ties they had to their community. Since 2004, the couple has worked to restore the home and turn it into a community center, hosting tours and activities.
The Stewarts have been working to finance a $12 million project to build an interpretive center near the Myers home, now that operations have moved to the area. The loss of a $250,000 grant from the NEH, they say, caused a major setback for the project.
Mary Liz said the funding “confirmed who we are as an organization, what we were trying to do. And, when it comes to the rest of the world, this is an organization that deserves attention.”
