In an interview, museum president and CEO R. Scott Stephenson called the museum, which opened in 2017, a place where people with “very broad political differences” can engage in “an exploration of history American Embracing Diversity and Inclusion. , but it also gives space for people to feel gratitude and pride for the nation and hope for the future.”
“Man, I think we need more, not less of that,” he said.
Moms for Liberty has taken issue with negative characterizations of the group, which the Southern Poverty Law Center recently labeled “extremist.”
In a statement to The New York Times, the organization’s co-founders, Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich, said: “We hope our national summit in Philadelphia will be an empowering and empowering moment for parents to be more active in the school system of their children. . We stand up for parental rights and oppose anyone who tries to silence parents who want to speak up for their children’s needs.”
In recent years, historians have increasingly been drawn into increasingly intense political battles over the teaching of American history, making the date “1776” itself a partisan rallying cry. Academic groups have mobilized against the rapid spread of so-called “divisive concepts” laws limiting teaching about race and gender, which have been passed or proposed in at least three dozen states.
Moms for Liberty, founded in 2021, was originally focused on opposing pandemic-era restrictions on schools, but has since expanded to support the rights of parents to ban books they deem inappropriate from classrooms. and school libraries. The group has also become a force in Republican politics: Scheduled speakers at the summit include several presidential candidates.
The Museum of the American Revolution is not the first institution to draw attention for a lease to groups or figures seen as inconsistent with its mission. In 2019, the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce’s annual gala was moved from the American Museum of Natural History, after news that the group was honoring Jair Bolsonaro, then president of Brazil, caused outrage.
