Underground Railroad museum sues Trump administration alleging it canceled grant on the basis of race

Source: NBC News

March 21, 2026, 8:17 PM EDT


An Underground Railroad museum in upstate New York alleged in a lawsuit Friday that the Trump administration unlawfully terminated its federal grant on the basis of race, pointing to President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle diversity-focused initiatives.

The Underground Railroad Education Center, located in Albany N.Y., alleges in its lawsuit that the National Endowment for the Humanities' cancelation of a $250,000 grant amounted to viewpoint and racial discrimination, violating the First and Fifth Amendments, respectively.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York, calls for the funds to be reinstated. The suit cited Trump's January 2025 executive order that required federal agencies to eliminate any operations supporting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within 60 days. The 40-page brief outlined 1,400 grants that were terminated in early April 2025 "for their conflict with President Trump’s EOs and the new agency priorities adopted in their wake."

Nina Loewenstein, a lawyer for the museum, told NBC News that there is "just no legitimate basis" for the grant's cancellation, adding that it is "just explicitly erasing things associated with the Black race."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/underground-railroad-museum-lawsuit-trump-grant-canceled-dei-diversity-rcna264586