The Whitney Plantation, a former Louisiana plantation that teaches visitors about the truths of slavery and the experiences of enslaved people, has lost two federal grants amid the Trump administration’s spending cuts and attack on DEI.

According to The Guardian, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which provides resources to the nation’s libraries, archives, and museums, terminated two grants awarded to the Whitney Plantation.

The termination comes amid the Trump administration's efforts to end DEI initiatives and programs cut federal funding for arts and cultural institutions. Federal webpages including references to figures, including Harriet Tubman, U.S. Army Major General Calvin Rogers, and more, have been scrubbed from the internet.

The Whitney Plantation already received one of the terminated grants earlier this year. The second grant aimed to fund an exhibit about how enslaved people resisted on plantations. The exhibit on resistance to slavery was set to be completed in June and open to the public in January 2026.

Without the funding, the Whitney Plantation will lose roughly $55,000. The plantation and its grant partners, the University of New Orleans and a research project called Freedom on the Move, have until May 12 to appeal the grant termination.

In a letter to grantees, Keith Sonderling, IMLS acting director, said grants were being terminated in compliance with a March executive order that calls for the agency to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law."

“Upon further review, IMLS has determined that your grant is unfortunately no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLS Program,” Sonderling wrote. “IMLS is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda. Independently and secondly, the President’s March 14, 2025 executive order mandates that the IMLS eliminate all non-statutorily required activities and functions.”

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