Smithsonian’s Leader to Step Down Amid Trump Efforts to Reshape Black History

Photographs by Kuwilileni Hauwanga/Capital B

Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Smithsonian Institution’s first Black secretary, is stepping down after more than a year of escalating attacks from the White House over how the institution presents U.S. history. 

“I have spent nearly half of my life working at and being part of the Smithsonian family, and what a privilege it has been,” Bunch, 73, wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “There is no place like the Smithsonian — it has been one of the great loves of my life, and I am extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished together.”

He added that he’s leaving with “pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.”

Bunch has led the institution since 2019 and plans to remain in his role through the end of the year, the Smithsonian said.

With his departure, he will end nearly four decades at the Smithsonian, where he worked in various roles. Most famously, he was the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, or the “Blacksonian,” which opened in 2016.

Since 2025, he has been a frequent target of President Donald Trump, whose administration has threatened to withhold federal support from the Smithsonian.

On Aug. 19, 2025, Trump took to his social media platform to post about what he believes are the failures of the Smithsonian when it comes to depicting the experiences of Black Americans. He claimed that the Smithsonian focuses too much on “how bad slavery was” and “how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.”

Later, on Aug. 21, 2025, the White House published an unsigned article calling out Smithsonian exhibits and museums that it sees as being at odds with its political agenda.

And on July 4, 2026, the White House released a 162-page critique of the National Museum of American History, taking aim at everything from its treatment of race and immigration to its exhibits on gender and sexuality.

But Trump’s rhetoric doesn’t tell the full story.

Though the Smithsonian explores the brutal chapters of U.S. history, including the Transatlantic Slave Trade and lynching, it also offers a number of galleries that underscore Black excellence and joy.

One exhibit, for instance, celebrates Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first Black candidate to seek a major political party’s presidential nomination.

And another exhibit spotlights the iconic red Cadillac of Chuck Berry, the pioneering Black musician who was beloved as the Father of Rock and Roll.

Capital B recently went to the Blacksonian to capture a fuller picture of its offerings — and to observe first hand some of the history that the administration seems intent on sanitizing.

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