Debate over whose history is told—and whose is erased—plays out in Maryland's state & national parks

By Erica Kane,

Published February 2, 2026 at 12:00 PM EST

Inside the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Dorchester County, Maryland, visitors see a bronze bust of Harriet Tubman, which tells the story of Harriet Tubman from enslaved woman to free citizen. It stands five feet tall, which was Tubman's actual height. It faces north, the direction Tubman traveled on the Underground Railroad and where she found her freedom in Philadelphia. The bronze bust is displayed on two pieces of wood local to the Eastern Shore of Maryland: red cedar, which was generic to the Eastern Shore and Dorchester County, and a base cap made from the historic Wye Oak, that symbolizes Tubman's time in the timber fields in Dorchester County, Maryland with her father, Ben Ross, and other free and enslaved African Americans. — Inside the **Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center** in Dorchester County, Maryland, visitors see a bronze bust of Harriet Tubman, which tells the story of Harriet Tubman from enslaved woman to free citizen. It stands five feet tall, which was Tubman's actual height. It faces north, the direction Tubman traveled on the Underground Railroad and where she found her freedom in Philadelphia. The bronze bust is displayed on two pieces of wood local to the Eastern Shore of Maryland: red cedar, which was generic to the Eastern Shore and Dorchester County, and a base cap made from the historic Wye Oak, that symbolizes Tubman's time in the timber fields in Dorchester County, Maryland with her father, Ben Ross, and other free and enslaved African Americans.

Today on Midday, guest host Erica Kane notes the beginning of Black History Month this year year amid a time of real tension about how American history is to be told.

Across the country, debates over race and memory are shaping what shows up in classrooms, museums, and even our public lands.

In several national parks last week, plaques and exhibits addressing climate change, Native American history, and slavery were removed...raising urgent questions about whose stories are preserved, and whose are pushed aside.

Today, a discussion about the telling of Black history – not just in February, but year-round. What does it mean to protect these stories in a political moment when history itself is being contested?

To answer that question, we'll hear how history is being told at Maryland's public parks, which include many important sites in Black history.

We’re joined today by Mary Dennard, a park ranger at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Dorchester County, Maryland, and Angela Crenshaw is the director of the Maryland Park Service, and a longtime park ranger.

You can join us, too. What does Black history month mean to you? Are you thinking about it differently this year?

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