For the past year and a half the White House has been hard at work….rewriting history!
One such project includes a less than accurate assessment of American history told at the Smithsonian Institute; especially race, slavery, immigration and transgender identity and complained that the Smithsonian focused on “how bad slavery was.” The White House even demanded “content corrections” at a number of the museums; however, Bunch told them that the Smithsonian is independent and will remain so.
When the Museum of American History refused to rewrite the facts and remove artifacts from the museum, the White House had signs posted outside the museum.
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute Lonnie G. Bunch III has had enough and has announced that he will be retiring come the end of the year.
Prior to taking over as the head of The Institute some seven years ago, Bunch founded the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The Smithsonian Institute is comprised of several different museums including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Air and Space Museum, and the Museum of American History and has been a part of Washington, D.C. for 180 years.
Calling the exhibits displaying “improper ideology”, the White House has threatened to withhold federal funding, attempted to fire a museum director, and challenges the Institute’s authority.
However, with the departure of Lonnie Bunch, the White House will not be able to take over the Smithsonian Institute as easily as it did the Kennedy Center. The Board of Regents decides who runs the Smithsonian. The Board is headed by Chief Justice to the Supreme Court John G. Roberts is composed of high-level government officials, members of Congress and citizens appointed by Congress. Currently there are only 15 of 17 seats including the Vice-President.
Saying that he has been contemplating retirement for about a year, Bunch noted the current issues with the White House did not come into play while making his decision, Bunch told the Washington Post, “we’re at a time when people are challenging that independence, but I feel very strongly that it is as independent as we were before, and that I will continue to fight — for as long as I’m in this chair — for the independence of the Smithsonian.”
After deciding to stay on through the nation’s 250th anniversary, Bunch noted that the time was right to retire after spending part of the summer with his children and grandchildren saying, “for, I don’t know, 45 years, work has taken precedence over family, and I just said at 73, enough’s enough. There’s never a good time, but I think the key is I want to be able to have as many years as I can with the family and the grandkids.”
Bunch has agreed to stay until a replacement is named in order to ensure “a peaceful transfer of power and avoid leaving the Smithsonian in the lurch.” He has spent the past 38 years in various positions with the Smithsonian Institute.
Praising Bunch for his “excellence in the telling of our Nation’s story”, Chief Justice Roberts said the Institute “benefited greatly from his wisdom, vision, and leadership.”
He added, “we look forward to working with him in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition for his successor.”
When Bunch took over as the head of the Institute in 2019, he said that he wanted it to be, “a place that matters” — where Americans could wrestle with contemporary disputes using history, science and scholarship. You make sure that the scholarship is sound, that the things you want to do are not shaped by politics but shaped by the research.” Adding that the Smithsonian is “part of the glue that holds this country together.”