Director of National Museum of African American History and Culture on leave as Trump Adminstration turns attention to Smithsonian

Kevin Young, who took the helm in 2021, has been absent from his position since March 14 for an “undetermined period.” 

As President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI agenda turns its attention to the Smithsonian, Kevin Young, the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, DC, has been on leave since March 14.

According to an email obtained by the Washington Post, Young has been on personal leave for an “undetermined period.”  Shanita Brackett, NMAAHC’s associate director of operations, is now serving as interim director.

While the Post’s report arrives as Trump has been taking a wrecking ball to the federal government and many of the institutions it supports, including the Smithsonian, Young’s absence has no apparent connection to the president’s recent executive order.

NMAAHC did not immediately return theGrio’s request for comment.

Young, a celebrated poet and essayist, has been director of NMAAHC since 2021. Before that, he served as the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library in Harlem.

Young’s leave began two weeks before Trump issued an executive order calling for the elimination of what he referred to as “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology” within the Smithsonian.

“Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” read the order.

The order specifically targeted NMAAHC for supposedly “[proclaiming] that ‘hard work’, ‘individualism’, and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture.’”

In response to Trump’s order, Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, said the museum will “remain committed to telling the multi-faceted stories of this country’s extraordinary heritage”, in an email shared with staff, per the Museums Association.

“We will continue to employ our internal review processes which keep us accountable to the public,” Bunch continued. “When we err, we adjust, pivot, and learn as needed. As always, our work will be shaped by the best scholarship, free of partisanship, to help the American public better understand our nation’s history, challenges, and triumphs.”