A resurfaced video from February 2025 features Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, stating that history, as a practice, is a "prime tool of social justice." These remarks come after Hartig testified before Congress, asserting the museum's commitment to objectivity and nonpartisanship.
During a presentation at the University of California, Los Angeles, Hartig described the museum's approach as "equity-based, justice forward, community driven and necessarily humble." She also noted that "the United States’ long and violent racial history continues to be present in our reckoning" and that "redress in the form of reparation… should leverage responsibility, it should think about the act of correction, as we pursue restorative justice."
This stance appears to differ from her July testimony on Capitol Hill, where she stated, "Our work is governed by the Smithsonian standards of scholarship, accuracy, independence and nonpartisanship." At that time, she also said, "the museum does not take sides in America's political debates," but instead "preserve[s] and document[s] the evidence of American life in all of its breadth, so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions."
In the resurfaced video, Hartig also discussed the museum's shift from its initial Cold War-era focus on American technological advancement. She highlighted a "bold new vision" to become the "most accessible, inclusive, relevant, and sustainable public history institution in the country," aiming to serve an audience reflecting the full demographic diversity of the United States.
Hartig detailed the museum's involvement in documenting and preserving objects related to the Black Lives Matter movement, starting in 2012. She shared images of protest signs from the summer of 2020, describing them as "phenomenal, ephemeral statements, signs… expressing that kind of very heartfelt and incredibly poignant [message]." She also praised the anti-ICE organization Tsuru for Solidarity for its collaboration with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Furthermore, Hartig outlined a "proactive multilingual strategy to support language justice," aiming for all exhibitions, signage, and digital projects to be at least bilingual in English and Spanish, with additional languages included based on project needs and community origins, a policy in effect since the fall of 2019.
Hartig concluded her remarks by asserting, "We’re under attack for speaking complicated truths" and encouraged students to "raise your voices and speak them together." She described history as "the key that unlocks the mysteries of humanity, of meaning, of place, of conquest, of love, power, authority and self," and characterized museum professionals as "tellers of stories and seekers of truths, hopefully embracers of nuance, ambassadors of empathy and defenders of inalienable rights."