Soldiers in the Maryland National Guard 229th Army Band stand in formation during the Towson 4th of July Parade in Towson, Maryland, on July 3, 2021. (Chazz Kibler/U.S. Army)
The Maryland National Guard has declined to participate in a parade to honor the life and legacy of abolitionist and Maryland native Frederick Douglass in his birthplace, citing recent Trump administration guidance.
The guard sent organizers of the event a memo on Feb. 7 saying they are unable to provide a flyover, band, military vehicles or troop presence.
“Since this event is organized as part of a Black History month celebration, the Maryland National Guard cannot support,” says the memo from Maryland National Guard Lt. Col. Meaghan Lazak, which quotes guidance from the Defense Department.
The message prompted organizers to cancel the parade portion of the 207th Birthday Celebration of Frederick Douglass and Civil Rights Heroes Day, said Tarence Bailey Sr., a descendant of Douglass. The event was scheduled for Feb. 22 in Easton, during Black History Month.
“Basically, what the DOD said is, ‘We’re not doing that, he’s Black and this is February so, no,’” Bailey said. “You’re discrediting everything - all of the work he did for this nation not as a Black man but as an American. …. They should really be ashamed of themselves.”
The Massachusetts National Guard traveled eight hours to participate in the parade last year, Bailey said. They bowed out this year, citing federal guidance, a spokesperson said, adding that a civilian reenactor group representing the 54th Massachusetts Infantry had been scheduled to attend.
A spokesman for the Maryland National Guard referred questions to the guidance from the defense secretary.
Titled “Identity Months Dead at DoD,” and dated Jan. 31, the guidance bars military departments from using federal resources to participate in “cultural awareness months, including National African American/Black History Month.”
It also lists “Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month.”
In his first weeks in office, Trump has purged diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from the federal government and plans to target employees who work in offices established by law to ensure equal rights, internal documents from the U.S. DOGE Service obtained by The Washington Post show.
In a proclamation dated Jan. 31 - the same date as the Defense Department guidance - Trump recognized National Black History Month and the “many black American patriots who have indelibly shaped our Nation’s history,” including Douglass, who appears first in a list with Harriet Tubman, who like Douglass was born on the Eastern Shore. During his first term, Trump in 2017 signed legislation for a commission to plan celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Douglass’s birth.
Douglass was born in 1818 as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Talbot County. After escaping from slavery, he became known as a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, and father of the civil rights movement.
Douglass selected Feb. 14 as his birthday and died on Feb. 20, adding to the significance of this week for the commemorations of his life, Bailey said. Douglass lived his final years at Cedar Hill, his Anacostia home and a national historic site.
A cultural celebration at the Avalon Theatre and a dinner are still scheduled and proceeds will go toward preserving the history of the Hill community in Talbot County, one of the oldest free African American neighborhoods still in existence, Bailey said.
But Bailey, president of the Bailey-Groce Family Foundation, says the snub is personal. He served 10 years in the Maryland National Guard, including a deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
“I’m not saying Trump said ‘no’ to the Frederick Douglass parade,” he said, “but his actions and the reverberations of his pen caused it, which I don’t think was thought through at all.”
