States scramble after Trump's 'devastating' cuts to humanities grants
Published 5 April 2025
After the federal building was bombed in Oklahoma City in 1995, a grant helped preserve stories of survivors. A similar grant supported the recording of oral histories from survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Veterans centers, public schools and rural communities have also received some of the $42 million handed out by the state-run Oklahoma Humanities over the last 50 years.
That ended this week with a grant termination letter from the Trump administration.
"Our funding is quietly sustaining the cultural infrastructure and educational infrastructure of our state," executive director Caroline Lowery told USA TODAY. "I think our absence will be felt once it's too late."
More than a thousand National Endowment for the Humanities grants were terminated this week by the administration, including grants provided to every state humanities council for decades.
The agency also sent an estimated 70% of its staff home on administrative leave while it weighs how to scale down as part of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's attempts to reduce the size of government.
Among the terminated grants was the National History Day history competition that serves more than 500,000 students a year and is just weeks away from holding its national competition.
AFGE Local 3403, a branch of the American Federation of Government Employees that represents NEH employees said that an informal survey of its members reflected that most of its 180 NEH employees are in the process of being removed from their positions.
"NEH administers grants and funding for museums, libraries, researchers and others who seek to preserve the American story. Untold numbers of grantees have already been informed that their funding is being cut," the union local said in a statement. "The union condemns these damaging cuts to people and funding. The arbitrary and dismissive approach to employees and grantees is frankly un-American and unacceptable."