“Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service’s website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership,” NPS spokeswoman Rachel Pawlitz told the Associated Press. ”The webpage was immediately restored to its original content.”

A side-by-side analysis of the original webpage and the edited page revealed extensive edits regarding the Underground Railroad, a secret network of “safe” routes and houses that played a pivotal role in helping slaves escape to freedom when slavery was still legal in the United States. 

The original opening paragraph read: “The Underground Railroad—the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, through the end of the Civil War—refers to the efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom by escaping bondage. Wherever slavery existed, there were efforts to escape.”

“At first to maroon communities in remote or rugged terrain on the edge of settled areas and eventually across state and international borders. These acts of self-emancipation labeled slaves as ‘fugitives,’ ‘escapees,’ or ‘runaways,’ but in retrospect, ‘freedom seeker’ is a more accurate description,” it continued. “Many freedom seekers began their journey unaided and many completed their self-emancipation without assistance, but each subsequent decade in which slavery was legal in the United States, there was an increase in active efforts to assist escape.”

The edited page read: “The Underground Railroad—flourished from the end of the 18th century to the end of the Civil War, was one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement during its evolution over more than three centuries.”

“The Underground Railroad bridged the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality; spanned State lines and international borders; and joined the American ideals of liberty and freedom expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the extraordinary actions of ordinary men and women working in common purpose to free a people,” it continued.

VANDERBILT U MEDICAL CENTER REMOVES DEI FROM WEBSITES FOLLOWING TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER

The NPS debacle comes as other federal agencies, most prominently the Department of Defense, have faced fierce backlash for similar “mistakes” in which references to black or other civil rights figures and famed U.S. icons were removed as the Trump administration works to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from the government. 

In March, an ESPN columnist expressed particular outrage after the Defense Department appeared to remove an article about famed black baseball player Jackie Robinson from the agency’s website. The article was promptly restored the following day, and the Pentagon suggested it had been “mistakenly” or “maliciously” removed in an unauthorized manner. But the incident and similar mistakes with other war heroes, such as the Navajo Code Talkers and the Tuskegee Airmen, have clouded the Trump administration’s anti-DEI efforts.