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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Matt Brown

Prominent pastor notified books loaned to African American museum may be returned amid review

Smithsonian Black Museum Artifacts - (Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A veteran activist of the Civil Rights Movement said he was notified by the Smithsonian Institution that items he loaned to the National Museum of African American History and Culture may be returned, amid a potential review of the museum's collections ordered by President Donald Trump.

Rev. Amos C. Brown, pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, loaned two books to the Smithsonian, which have been displayed since the museum opened nearly a decade ago. One of his items is an edition of “The History of the Negro Race in America” by George Washington Williams, which was written in 1880 and is among the first books to document Black American history and racism in the U.S. The other is a Bible that Brown carried during protests alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

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