The Strength of Our Past

The Founding Fathers understood that the American experiment they had begun would be messy, even flawed — an ongoing work in progress. It’s right there in the Preamble to the Constitution, after all — that their hope for the new nation was that we would strive for “a more perfect Union.”

But the only way for the country to forge a more perfect future is to honestly account for its past. The American story is full of triumph, just as it is full of tragedy, and it is often the dark or difficult chapters of the past from which we can learn the most. Grow the most. Heal the most. It is those chapters that are vital to telling a more complete and accurate American story.

The National Park Service protects the places and preserves the stories that are part of that history, from the camps where Japanese American citizens were incarcerated during wartime to prominent sites from the struggle for civil rights. But some of those places and stories are now at grave risk, as the administration takes actions to revise – even to erase – parts of the shared past that, together, help to define American history.

Imagine America Without… Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument

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How a Group of Silent Women Won a Battle with President Wilson a Century Ago

The first organization to picket the White House launched a hard-fought campaign to win a major victory for women’s rights.

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Tucked just one block from the Capitol, Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument is more than a historic home. It is one of the oldest structures in Washington, D.C., and the site where generations of women led the fight for equality. For over a century, it served as headquarters for the National Woman’s Party, where suffragists and feminist leaders planned protests, drafted legislation, and demanded recognition under the law. Inside these walls, they lobbied Congress, held strategy meetings, and fought to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Today, the house remains a living symbol of that ongoing fight and holds the most complete collection of women’s suffrage and equal rights movement documents and artifacts in the country.

This place is irreplaceable. Alice Paul and Alva Belmont, two of the movement’s fiercest leaders, made this space a hub for social change. It is where the spirit of the 19th Amendment was made real, and where the demand for true equality was kept alive for decades after. It is also where the full story of the suffrage movement is told — including its limitations. Interpretative rangers and exhibits acknowledge that while the 19th Amendment gave many women the right to vote, it excluded many others. The site does not shy away from the complexity of history. Instead, it embraces it, offering visitors the truth in all its power.

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Make Them Hear You

New signs ask visitors to report to the Department of the Interior anything that portrays U.S. history in a negative light. Tell the administration, instead, to stop meddling.

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But this truth is under threat. In June 2025, new signs began appearing at park sites across the country, including Belmont-Paul, asking visitors to report any “negative information” about past or living Americans. These signs, issued by the Department of the Interior, have raised fears of censorship. They suggest that parks should prioritize beauty and patriotism over honesty and hard history. At Belmont-Paul, this is especially alarming. What happens when stories of injustice are considered too uncomfortable to tell? What happens when protest signs on the walls are viewed as too critical?

The goal of national parks is not to flatter the past, but to learn from it. Belmont-Paul invites visitors into a space where resistance shaped the future, where the messy work of democracy was done not in silence, but in defiance. It is a place where truth lives in the details — in the slogans on banners, the worn furniture, the portraits of women who refused to be erased. To undermine that truth now would be to erase not only history, but the voices who made it.

We must protect Belmont-Paul, not just as a building, but as a legacy. What happened here still matters. And the fight for equality it represents is far from over.

Take Action These are the stories our national parks MUST tell. ›

Imagine America without… the unsung heroines of Stonewall

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Parks Group Condemns Erasure of LGBTQ+ History from Park Service Website

The federal government is undermining National Park Service efforts to maintain

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America is a nation of pioneers – people with vison and courage, strong enough to take a stand or to blaze a trail. Pioneers like Stormé DeLarverie, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera helped shape modern social movements. At a time when LGBTQ+ Americans were forced into the shadows, they were fighting for equality and fighting to simply be recognized for who they really were. They were leaders who shaped American history, and their stories became part of Stonewall National Monument.

Stonewall National Monument, in the heart of New York City, tells a gripping story through its pictures and testimonials, but also through the streets and storefronts all around. The social movement that ignited here was shaped by its surroundings — put simply, the story of the place and the story of the people can’t be told without each other.

But fifty years after the Stonewall Uprising, all mentions of trans and queer people were deleted from National Park Service websites – including the historic roles played by Stormé DeLarverie, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. American history is full of pioneers like these, who were bold enough to speak truth to power. Instead of censoring American history, our government should be proud that our nation produced leaders like these.