The National Park Service released its 2026 list of free-entry days, and the two most defining federal holidays tied to Black liberation and civil rights are gone.
Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day and Juneteenth have been removed, replaced with a slate of patriotic observances that now includes Flag Day, which is also President Donald Trump’s birthday.
The Park Service’s public posting confirmed that the two holidays honoring the end of slavery and the legacy of nonviolent resistance will no longer open park gates at no cost.
The BBC reported that the agency framed the move as “modernization” and added Trump’s birthday while eliminating the holidays tied to racial justice.
The change follows Trump’s ban on federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs earlier this year, which forced many agencies to halt observances tied to MLK Day and Juneteenth. Those holidays now disappear from the Park Service calendar at the same moment the administration raises fees for and deports non-citizens, while also rewriting federal access rules.
“Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition,” Kristen Brengel said to Newsweek. “For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”
Members of Congress condemned the decision.
“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) declared.
Rep. Gregory Meeks told Newsweek that “our parks should reflect our shared history, not cater to Trump’s ego.”
Trump Administration Continues to Erase Black Narratives
Historians say the government’s decision extends far beyond the calendar of free-entry days.
“There’s a long-standing perception that MLK Day and Juneteenth are ‘for’ Black Americans,” Rowan University professor Emily Blanck said. “The Trump administration has consistently worked to eliminate recognition of Black Americans and their contributions under the banner of opposing DEI.”
Trump’s public language has moved in the same direction.
Speaking about Somali immigrants at an event in Minnesota, the president said, “Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country.” He later called Somalia “a hellhole.”
His remarks about American cities have followed a similar pattern.
When deploying federal forces into Washington, D.C., Trump described the capital as “a nightmare of murder and crime” and told supporters he intended “to take it away from the mayor.”
Local leaders and residents rejected the claims as manufactured.
For many, the erasure of MLK Day and Juneteenth from the national calendar of free-entry days is more than symbolic. It signals a withdrawal from recognizing the history of racial injustice and the movements that confronted it.
The move also marks a political choice about whose stories the government believes are worthy of national reflection.
“When a government chooses not to honor the nation’s freedom holidays, it signals that the struggle for freedom itself is no longer a shared national value,” Blanck demanded.