Citing Trump Executive Order, Army Corps Of Engineers Cancels Black History Month Events

Department of Defense's intelligence agency paused observances of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, Holocaust Days of Remembrance and Black History Month.

The Army Corps of Engineers has followed a federal pause on observances of Black History Month and other celebrations, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day, by canceling a Black History Month program in Jacksonville, Florida, which led Jacksonville City Council member Rahman Johnson, a Black man who was supposed to speak at the event, to express his disbelief.

According to The Associated Press, although Donald Trump made a show of recognizing February as Black History Month in a Jan. 31 proclamation, the Department of Defense’s intelligence agency had already paused observances of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, Holocaust Days of Remembrance and Black History Month in response to Trump’s previous executive order which instituted bans of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal workplace.

According to News 4 Jax, on Jan. 31, Johnson expressed his thoughts on the abrupt cancellation of the Black History Month event, saying that he was caught by surprise.

“I was honored they wanted me to come and not only do a presentation for their Corps for Black History Month but as an academic, answer some questions. I was floored,” Johnson said. “It was almost as if the declination or recension of that invitation was a swipe against all of the opportunities of normalcy that we have made not just as African Americans but as Americans.”

The Army Corps of Engineers issued a statement to the outlet, explaining why they cancelled the previously scheduled event.

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Jacksonville District was directed by the DOD and USACE Headquarters to postpone all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-related observance events and trainings until further guidance is received, in accordance with President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) issued January 20, 2025, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” the Army Corps of Engineers said.

According to The New York Times, both the public study of Black history and the public observation of Black History Month, which grew out of educator Carter G. Woodson’s celebration of Negro History Week, an expansion of the traditional celebration of Frederick Douglass’ birthday in February, are in peril.

Although, as Martha Jones, a professor of history and a presidential scholar at Johns Hopkins University told the outlet, the celebration of Black History Month does not need to be sanctioned by the White House to continue being marked.

“Black History Month existed long before presidents endorsed it, and it will continue, even if presidents do not,” Jones also added that “there’s a great deal to lament and even to decry” as it pertains to the suppression of Black history, which is also American history.

Jones continued, “I find it cowardly, the idea that we would shrink from our past. I believe we are strong enough as a nation to know that past, to make it part of our histories, to teach it, to read it, to learn it, and to still be a nation.”