Underground Railroad museum sues Trump administration after $250K grant canceled

ALBANY — The Underground Railroad Education Center is suing the National Endowment for the Humanities and several federal officials, after the museum had a $250,000 grant canceled as part of President Donald Trump’s crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Albany, accused the government of violating the center’s First and Fifth Amendment rights when it moved to cancel the grant in May, as part of a second round of wide-ranging anti-DEI cuts carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency.

The center’s leaders had sought the grant to, among other things, help fund the construction of an interpretive center near the museum at 194 Livingston Ave., which was once the home of leading Black abolitionists Stephen and Harriet Myers. The three-story brick building itself served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

“It is apparent that NEH withdrew its funding offer because (the interpretive center) would increase the public’s knowledge and understanding of the Underground Railroad movement — a movement focused on freedom and equality for African Americans,” the lawsuit read.

It continued: “This goal was deemed to contravene the Trump administration’s mandate to divest the federal government of all support for DEI. NEH and DOGE withdrew the offer to suppress (the museum’s) viewpoint and to divest, as it had done systematically, its support for Black history research and programs.”

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