Kudos to Scott Merzbach (“Telling the truth is fully under assault,” Aug. 26) for highlighting local museums that are telling the truth about enslavement in the Valley before it was abolished in Massachusetts in 1783. Trump’s executive order, laughably named “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” would like to do away with these local narratives that remind us of the North’s complicity in our nation’s history of slavery.
As a member of the David Ruggles Center for History and Education in Florence, I would like to invite the community to visit us and learn how local Black and white abolitionists continued to fight against slavery and to advocate for full rights for all African-Americans. Current efforts for reparations, both in Northampton and Amherst, remind us that these histories are still very much a part of the fabric of our country. People like David Ruggles, Sojourner Truth, Basil Dorsey, and so many others also provide us with inspiration to confront the formidable challenges we are faced with today.
Thank you to all the historians, museum workers, and volunteers who understand the deep importance of honoring and sharing these voices from the past.
Kim Gerould
Northampton