Frederick Douglass’ Family Outraged Over National Guard’s Withdrawal from Honorary Parade Days After Military Decides to Stop Recruiting from Black Engineering Event

Another day, another example of how the Trump Administration’s war on the excesses of DEI and “wokeness” has morphed into a war on diversity itself.

How else to explain the decision by the Maryland National Guard to withdraw from a celebration for American abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ birthday due to a Defense Department directive to not participate in any Black History Month events, according to Military.com.

A formal memo from the Maryland National Guard’s Joint Operations Center, dated Feb. 7, said the reserve component would be “unable to support the event for a flyover, band, military vehicles and troop presence.” The celebration is called “Operation Frederick Douglass on the Hill” and marks the historic figure’s 207th birthday.

The memo, signed by Lt. Col. Meaghan Lazak of the Maryland National Guard, began circulating online over the past week.

Douglass’ extended family received a note just last week from the Maryland National Guard informing them of the decision.

“Since this event is organized as part of a Black History Month celebration, the Maryland National Guard cannot support,” the note said. “The Maryland National Guard must decline events which celebrate individuals based all or in part on immutable characteristics.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has championed the “anti-woke” measures, declaring on the last day of January that “identity months” are now dead at the DOD. Instead, Hegseth has prioritized restoring the military’s “warrior culture and ethos.”

“My heart dropped,” said Tarence Bailey Sr., a fifth-generation nephew of Douglass. “I was upset, especially when looking at the reasons.”

Many of the decisions related to the Pentagon’s directive seem petty. The Army Band recently canceled a concert at George Mason University in Virginia, where it was set to play music by Black singer Janelle Monáe.

And this week it was reported that the Army and other service branches were ending their enlistment efforts at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards, an annual event that invites students, academics, and professionals with expertise in science, technology, engineering, and math.

“It’s f—ing racist,” one active-duty U.S. Army general stated. “For the Army now, it’s ‘Blacks need not apply,’ and it breaks my heart.”

The Army also ended a long-standing partnership with Ashley Hall, an all-girls preparatory school in Charleston, S.C.

Military.com reports, “For the first time since 2017, the Army Corps of Engineers will not participate in Ashley Hall’s annual ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day,’ an outreach event scheduled for Friday. The initiative, once a staple of the Army’s public engagement efforts, was designed to draw students into science and engineering careers, fields where the military has long struggled to fill critical roles due to steep academic requirements.”

The withdrawal from the Douglass celebration led to the cancellation of a scheduled parade that was dependent on the Maryland Guard’s participation.

“I really didn’t want to cancel the parade,” Bailey Sr. said. “Especially not in Uncle Frederick’s hometown. But the President’s action forced our hand. Without the Maryland National Guard and the Massachusetts National Guard’s 54th Massachusetts. The heart of the parade tribute was cut out. Frederick Douglass doesn’t deserve this after all he’s done for this nation.”

Without federal funding and the donations the organization was hoping to receive from the event, plans to build a cultural center in honor of Douglass may have to be scuttled.

“The goal for this was to fund the building of an African American Cultural Center and the Frederick Douglass Society on African American History and Culture,” Bailey Sr. said, adding the move should serve as a wake-up call to Black Americans that although President Trump proclaimed February as National Black History Month, there is little support, financial or otherwise, from the federal government to promote it.