22 April 2025
By Safura Syed
Contributing Writer
(Veritenews.org) — The federal government has terminated two grants for African American history and culture awarded to the Whitney Plantation, a museum aimed at memorializing slavery, as the Trump administration works to strip federal funding from arts and cultural institutions.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services ended grants awarded through a program aimed at supporting African American museums last week.
In a letter to grantees, the agency’s acting director Keith Sonderling wrote that the grant “is no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States” and that the agency will be pivoting its funding priorities to follow President Donald Trump’s agenda. The Institute, which distributes grants to libraries and museums, placed all of its staff on administrative leave in late March as a part of massive cuts across federal agencies.
“It’s disturbing,” Ashley Rogers, executive director of the Whitney Plantation, told Verite News. “These grants like ours are going to small museums who are doing good work in communities. And to think that the history of African Americans in the South, the history of slavery, does not align with the priorities of the United States is very concerning.”
Together, the grants to the Whitney Plantation totalled almost $350,000 and were set to be completed in June. Most of one grant has already been disbursed, so the termination has no real effect on the museum. But the museum and two of its grant partners stand to lose around $55,000 from the other award, which helped fund an exhibition about how enslaved people performed acts of resistance on plantations.
Rogers requested the last of the funds from the IMLS in March and said her request had been approved by the agency. The following day, the federal agency was gutted.
“It’s enormously frustrating,” Rogers said. “It’s a true waste of funds to have invested all of this time and money into a project that can’t go over the finish line because the government has already paid for most of the grant funds that they committed.”
But the Whitney Plantation and its grant partners, the University of New Orleans and a research project called Freedom on the Move, have about a month to appeal the grant termination, according to an IMLS document obtained by Verite News.
Molly Mitchell, a history professor at UNO and the project director for the exhibit, said the project planners intend to appeal. The project is nearing its final stages, with only finishing touches remaining, Mitchell said.
“We do expect that full amount to come through, unless, for some reason, God forbid, what we turn in doesn’t satisfy,” Mitchell said.
The Whitney Plantation, which opened in 2014 as a museum, was the first of its kind in the country to dedicate itself to memorializing slavery. The National Parks Service had been considering the 11-mile stretch of Great River Road that includes the Whitney Plantation for a National Historic Landmark District designation, but removed the consideration in February after a request from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
The grant cancellations follow a series of Trump administration efforts to slash diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and remove references of Black, Latino and LGBTQIA+ people from government websites and historic monuments. Museums and cultural centers across the country have also lost funding due to federal cuts.
Rogers said the grants given by the IMLS are cost-match grants, which require the grantee to invest a portion of the grant’s cost before they receive the award. When grants like these are cancelled, small museums lose out on revenue streams and their own investments, she said.
Mitchell said IMLS grants help give small museums a seat at the table and the ability to share their work at conferences and with the public. She said the museum is aiming to open the exhibition to the public in early 2026, depending on whether the funds come through.
This article originally published in the April 21, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.