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Apr 4, 2025

National Civil Rights Leader, Melanie L. Campbell, Honors Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy, Rebukes Trump Order Targeting “Anti-American Ideology" at Smithsonian

Washington, DC – Today, Melanie L. Campbell, President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable issued the following statement honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy 57 years after his assassination, and rebuking the Trump Administration’s executive order seeking to rid the Smithsonian of “anti-American ideology”

“Nearly 60 years ago, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee for striving to make the United States a more perfect union where everyone could have an opportunity to thrive, regardless of their race. The story is well known. He and the innumerable people allied with him in the fight for greater civil rights heroically faced police beatings, vicious dog attacks, high pressure water hoses, beatings, and jail. King was one of many in the struggle to ultimately be killed for pushing our nation to live up to its founding ideals.

“Regrettably, all these years later, the justice and equality Dr. King died trying to secure remains elusive. The American Dream is still more out of reach for communities of color, Black men are still the most likely to be profiled by the police and sent to jail, voter suppression remains a fact of life for Black and other communities of color across the country, especially in the south. The journey to guarantee us all the inalienable rights we deserve continues.

“It is impossible to fully understand, and address, the disparities in our society today without looking to the past. The reality we experience today didn’t happen in a vacuum. We must acknowledge the centuries of injustices and broken promises our ancestors faced and people of color still face to create the conditions for a perfect union to be possible.

“That is why all Americans must rebuke the Trump Administration’s attempts to rewrite and erase the portions of our history they do not like in the name of “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History". The truth is that Martin Luther King, Jr. Was assassinated, Jackie Robinson served in the Army, freedom riders were attacked and beaten by the Ku Klux Klan at the Montgomery Bus Station the GSA wants to sell so that interstate commerce could be desegregated, Black homebuyers were denied the right to buy land where they chose, our systems and laws have never been fair. Those are truths from which our country can never run away.

“The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and our allies will move forward in the spirit of Dr. King’s honorable and nonviolent legacy. We won’t allow misguided executive actions to roll back the hard-won progress Dr. King and numerous other leaders died to secure. The fight will be hard, but nothing has ever been easy for our communities in this country. We won’t go back to the days when we were excluded from accessing opportunities and fully participating in our democracy as a matter of course.”