SC NPS staff flagged Black history, climate change content

CHARLESTON — A leaked internal database revealed the uncertainty National Park Service staff experienced in the weeks after orders to review park materials for any “negative” or “disparaging” content came down from the Department of the Interior last year.

All of the National Park sites in South Carolina flagged at least one piece of content for review last summer, an analysis of the data by The Post and Courier revealed. The list includes the “Bench by the Road” exhibit at Fort Moultrie and brochures about deforestation in the Congaree National Park.

The database was uploaded to two websites by anonymous users who described themselves as “civil servants on the front lines.” The Washington Post first reported on the leaked documents and independently verified the data’s authenticity.

In a statement to The Post and Courier, an Interior Department spokesperson confirmed the data as internal working documents. The spokesperson said the information is “not a representation of final action taken by the Department.”

Up until the database was released March 2, it was unclear what materials park staff believed needed review in compliance with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s orders. Burgum’s directive came shortly after President Donald Trump issued an executive order last March titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

In many cases, park staff provided photos of exhibits, links to videos and copies of brochures that could conflict with the orders from Trump and Burgum. Staff often asked for additional or elevated review of materials that could be seen as “disparaging” to Americans or failed to emphasis the “grandeur” of the nation’s natural resources.

The agency has been otherwise tight-lipped about what was flagged for review. The leaked database reveals the over-cautious nature in which staff flagged content and offered a glimpse into why certain pieces were put on display in the first place.

Burgum’s order stated that all non-conforming exhibits and materials were to be removed by September 2025, though it’s unclear if the reviews and subsequent removals are complete. The Interior spokesperson did not respond to questions from the newspaper about the status of the process.

Most of the materials flagged by staff at South Carolina’s sites dealt with Black history and climate change. Here’s what National Park staff across the state flagged for compliance with Burgum’s orders last summer.

Fort Sumter and Liberty Square in Charleston

One of the first changes to come to a Charleston-area National Park site was at Fort Sumter. A sign explaining the effects of climate change and rising waters to the fort planted in the middle of the Charleston Harbor was removed, The New York Times first reported in January.

It was the first sign to greet visitors to the man-made fort as they exited the tour boat.

“We have had complaints about this sign since it went up almost 10-15 years ago,” staff wrote.

At the Fort Sumter Visitor Center at Liberty Square, one of two launching points for the ferry to Fort Sumter, exhibits remain mostly untouched—except for a sign encouraging visitors to opt for reusable water bottles.

The sign that hung above a water fountain outside the visitors center was gone on March 4.

Other exhibits flagged included a wall of quotes about slavery, from both abolitionists and supporters, and an excerpt from the diary of Mary Boykin Chestnut about children borne by enslaved women to White plantation owners.

Several books sold in the gift shops at Fort Sumter and Liberty Square were flagged for review, along with a Juneteenth postcard and an African doll.

A panel about the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which ruled that U.S. citizenship—and federal protections—did not extend to enslaved people, was marked for review. That exhibit also included a quote from Abraham Lincoln, which echoes the sentiment.

Other images staff had flagged, like the Scourged Back, a drawing that depicts an enslaved man’s whip-scarred back, are still up at the Liberty Square Visitor Center.

Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island

In the back corner of the Fort Moultrie Visitor Center, an exhibit called “African Passages” details the history of slavery, Sullivan’s Island’s role in the slave trade and the inhumane conditions Africans experienced when they were kidnapped and brought to the Americas.

The exhibit includes a panel about Olaudah Equiano, who was captured from Nigeria as a boy and eventually bought his own freedom. Equiano was an abolitionist and author. His memoir is offered in the park gift shop.

A site bulletin titled “Lowcountry Slavery and the Middle Passage” explains the transatlantic slave trade and the experiences of Africans in the Lowcountry after they were brought to South Carolina.

These exhibits and bulletins were flagged for review by park staff, along with the “Bench by the Road” on the park grounds.

Staff asked that these materials be reviewed for compliance with Trump and Burgum’s orders. They also provided context for why the information is featured in the park.

They referenced the park’s foundational documents from when Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie were upgraded from National Monuments to National Historical Park in 2016.

The two parks interpret the former sites of Gadsden’s Wharf and quarantine stations, or pest houses, on Sullivan’s Island, where many Africans transported to America disembarked. The parks aim to provide “important connections between the history of the slave trade and the experiences of enslaved people in America,” according to the foundation documents.

These themes justified why the flagged exhibits were featured in the parks, staff wrote.

Among the materials, books and bulletins flagged for potential non-compliance, was an iron bench installed at Fort Moultrie, as part of the “Bench by the Road” project inspired by author Toni Morrison. The late author visited the park when the bench, meant to offer a place of reflection, was installed in 2008.

When news about the exhibit reviews broke, the bench was one of the exhibits former Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie Superintendent Michael Allen raised concerns about.

“Being in this environment and climate that we’re in now, I’m concerned,” Allen told The Post and Courier last July.

Charles Pinckney Historical Site in Mount Pleasant

The Charles Pinckney house is located off Mount Pleasant’s Long Point Road, across from Boone Hall Plantation.

The Post and Courier previously reported on a number of books that were on the shelves of the gift shop at this historical site. Those titles included autobiographies and memoirs from Equiano and Harriet A. Jacobs, two formerly enslaved people who wrote about their experiences in bondage. Other titles, some authored by local writers, were also flagged.

Displays throughout the home and the sprawling grounds detail the life of the Pinckney family, who owned Snee Farm Plantation and enslaved dozens of Africans. Charles Pinckney is regarded here as a “forgotten founder” of the United States, credited for his contributions to creation of the U.S. Constitution.

Pinckney was a staunch supporter of the institution of slavery. Exhibits throughout the home explain this and highlight the experiences of both the named and unnamed slaves forced to work and live on Snee Farm.

The park offers insight into the influential Pickneys, the Gullah Geechee people and culture, and the early Native American people who inhabited the area long before the Pinckney family.

Park staff flagged nearly all of the exhibits in the visitor center. Employees asked that the exhibits be reviewed for compliance. Similar to Fort Sumter, a small sign above the water fountain discouraging single-use plastics was up for review.

Congaree National Park in Hopkins

Congaree National Park staff flagged two book titles “Slavery: Cause and Catalyst of the Civil War” by the National Park Service and “Civil Disobedience and Other Essays” by Henry David Thoreau, brochures about the Bates Ferry Trail and the park’s self-guided tour.

Much of the content flagged references deforestation and the impacts of the logging industry, specifically the decimation of old growth bald cypress trees.

Signs about Harry Hampton, a conservationist and journalist who led efforts to preserve the Congaree River floodplain, were also marked for review, along with segments of a film visitors can view at the park called “Wilderness Shaped by Water.” That video discusses the loss of biodiversity in the floodplain and continued preservation efforts over time.

In their comments, park staff noted that they had yet to make any changes to these exhibits and materials. They were unsure if the flagged information needed to be altered, and if so, they were unclear on how to make those changes.

The Reconstruction Era National Historical Park is the newest site in South Carolina to be added to the National Park system. The park zeroes in on the African American experience in Beaufort and the surrounding Sea Islands during the Reconstruction Era. It features sites like the Penn Center, the South’s first education institution for former enslaved people.

Park staff here flagged brochures about the First South Carolina Infantry, a regiment made up of thousands of self-emancipated Black soldiers, Emancipation Day, Camp Saxton, The Sea Islands at War and the Old Fort Plantation.

They also flagged a sign welcoming visitors to the Pinckney-Porters Chapel that features information about Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the pastors who served the congregation at the chapel in Port Royal.

Pinckney was one of nine Black worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston who was killed in a gruesome attack by a white supremacist. His death, and the racially-charged nature in which he was targeted, is noted on this sign.

In their notes, the park’s superintendent said all of the exhibits were based on sound historical research, but requested an elevated review of the exhibit where potentially “negative content” is seen throughout the park.

Staff also flagged the “Lay of the Land” exhibit and the “Frontlines of Freedom” exhibit. The latter, staff noted, was created for use in the agency’s partner facilities outside of the NPS site.

Other exhibits flagged in the Upstate

Staff at Ninety Six, Kings Mountain and Cowpens, three National Park sites in the Upstate, jointly flagged two videos that are included in an educational program called “Five Senses, Five People.”

The program remained available on the websites for these parks as of March 5. The videos feature depictions of five people, based on real historical figures, portrayed by reenactors.

Park staff noted in their comments that the program was relatively new, designed for fourth grade students to learn about the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War.

Staff said they wanted the program and the associated films to be reviewed for compliance.

Staff at Ninety Six also flagged the book “Wives, Slaves, and Servant Girls: Advertisements for female runaways in American Newspapers 1770-1783,” by Don Hagist.

“The park is flagging it out of an abundance of caution,” staff wrote.