The Underground Railroad Education Center, housed in the historic Albany, New York home of abolitionists Stephen and Harriet Myers, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the Trump administration alleging that the National Endowment for the Humanities unlawfully canceled a $250,000 grant in April 2025 because of the museum's focus on African American history. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, argues that the grant termination violated the First Amendment's protection of viewpoint expression and the Fifth Amendment's due process guarantee. Attorney Nina Loewenstein said there was "just no legitimate basis" for the cancellation and that the museum had met all NEH reporting and compliance requirements.
The 40-page brief alleges the administration "systematically targeted grantees and programs that sought to increase the public's understanding of Black history" and included what the brief called "overt and coded racism supporting white supremacy" in the administration's communications justifying the cancellations. The NEH terminated approximately 1,400 grants in April 2025 citing conflict with President Trump's January 2025 executive order requiring federal agencies to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within 60 days. The loss of the $250,000 grant disrupted the museum's $12 million expansion project to build an interpretive center at the Myers home site. NBC News confirmed the lawsuit and reported the museum's specific allegations and legal claims.
Right-leaning media and the White House have defended the broader NEH grant cancellations as a straightforward application of the anti-DEI executive orders, arguing that grants to institutions focused exclusively on racial identity narratives constitute the type of DEI programming Trump directed agencies to eliminate. The Washington Examiner and Breitbart have separately praised the administration's NEH funding cuts as redirecting taxpayer money from what they called ideologically partisan cultural programming to broader public purposes. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Underground Railroad Center lawsuit specifically.
The case joins a growing body of litigation challenging the administration's grant cancellation program. A number of federal courts have issued rulings in similar cases, with mixed outcomes. Legal scholars cited by NBC News said the underground railroad museum case presents what one described as a stark example: a grant to a museum with a specific historic mission — preserving an actual Underground Railroad site used by freedom-seekers in the 1850s — that the government canceled under an order targeting race-based programming. The case will likely take months to resolve through the federal courts.
Left-Leaning Emphasis
- NBC News and NPR frame the lawsuit as a striking example of executive overreach, emphasizing that the Underground Railroad Education Center preserves an actual historic site where freedom-seekers found refuge in the 1850s — and that canceling its grant raises First Amendment concerns about the government discriminating against historical viewpoints it dislikes.
- Left-leaning outlets note the lawsuit's allegation that the grant cancellations were accompanied by 'overt and coded racism,' arguing the anti-DEI executive order has become a vehicle for targeting any institution that documents or celebrates Black American history.
Right-Leaning Emphasis
- The Washington Examiner and Breitbart defend the NEH grant cancellations as a proper implementation of Trump's anti-DEI order, arguing that grants to institutions focused exclusively on a single racial group's history constitute the type of identity-based programming that divides Americans rather than uniting them.
- Conservative outlets frame the cancellations as fiscal discipline, arguing that federal taxpayers should not be required to fund what they characterize as partisan cultural advocacy — and that the NEH should prioritize broadly accessible programming over projects tied to specific racial or ethnic identities.
Sources
- NBC News Mar 21
- Washington Examiner Mar 21
- Breitbart Mar 21
- NPR Mar 21