Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell urged her constituents to mobilize in order to pressure the Trump administration to reverse course on some of its efforts to revise history.
The Alabama lawmaker said this approach has already gotten results, pointing to the Department of Government Efficiency removing the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station from a list of federal historic sites it initially listed as for sale and calling it a “win” for the Democratic Party.
“When we amplify our voices, when we call out the outrageousness of the actions that are being taken, they have a tendency to reverse their orders,” Sewell said Tuesday during a telephone town hall in response to a question her staff read from a constituent about what she was doing to prevent the Trump administration from erasing Black history.
“I think we have to be vigilant about that,” Sewell said.
She pointed to a joint press conference she held with fellow Alabama Rep. Shomari Figures and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on the “outrageous” decision to include the building on the list, and said reversing the move was an example of what her party, which is out of power, can do to slow down President Donald Trump.
The Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station, now a museum dedicated to remembering the Montgomery bus boycott, was one of more than 400 federal buildings that were first listed on the General Services Administration’s website as “non-core” properties that could be closed or sold. Not long after its initial posting, the list was taken down. Now the website currently has an abbreviated list of sites “identified for accelerated disposition” that does not include the bus station.
The Trump administration has also taken aim at other historical institutions. Last month, the administration issued an executive order targeted at Smithsonian institutions that left open the question of whether exhibits would be removed from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“I’m mobilizing with other members of Congress and with outside organizations, and I hope with you all to have our collective voice be heard,” Sewell said. “That is unacceptable, unacceptable. To take away exhibits and from the National African American Museum, and under our watch we’re not going to stand by idly without a fight.”
In January, the Air Force scrubbed information from its training courses about the Tuskegee Airmen, the country’s first Black military pilots who served in a segregated unit during World War II, but reversed the decision after public outcry. Reinstating the information was another example Sewell pointed to of “a win” against the Trump administration.
“We know that the Tuskegee Airmen are heroes,” Sewell said. “They are patriots. They have been celebrated by the Air Force and by all the services as being the only unit that led those bombers and never lost a plane. So we pushed back, we held press conferences, we issued statements. And lots and lots of you demanded that it be returned. And so it was. That’s a win.”
At the end of her town hall, Sewell emphasized to her constituents that they play a big part in Democrats “mobilizing” efforts, and she needs them to “stay engaged and to stay involved.”
“It is no coincidence that the Trump administration has already backtracked on several of its unpopular policies, whether it was funding freeze or the selling of the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station. Those reversals happened because the American people spoke up and made their voices heard.”
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Torrence Banks is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.