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President Donald Trump has pledged to feature several Black historical figures and icons, including Kobe Bryant, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King Jr., in his proposed National Garden of American Heroes.
On Thursday (February 20), Trump shared his plans to honor "countless Black American icons" during his Black History Month celebration at the White House.
“We’re picking the final sites now. It’s between various states that want it very badly. We’ll honor hundreds of our greatest Americans to ever live, including countless Black American icons,” Trump told a crowd of guests in the East Room.
“The garden will predominantly feature incredible women like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, and Coretta Scott King,” he added.
Trump's announcement comes after he amended his initial executive order outlining plans for the National Garden of American Heroes.
“The National Garden will be built to reflect the awesome splendor of our country’s timeless exceptionalism. It will be a place where citizens, young and old, can renew their vision of greatness and take up the challenge that I gave every American in my first address to Congress, to ‘[b]elieve in yourselves, believe in your future, and believe, once more, in America,’” Trump detailed in his 2021 executive order.
The president originally set a goal of completing the site “prior to the 250th anniversary of the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026,” but amended the order to say the project should be finished “as expeditiously as possible.”
On Thursday, Trump also named several Black men who would be honored with sculptures in the National Garden.
“We’re going to produce some of the most beautiful works of art in the form of a statue for men like Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson. What a great athlete he was. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali..,” Trump said.
“And the late Kobe Bryant," he added.
Trump's Black History Month reception came amid a series of executive orders he signed banning diversity, equity, and inclusion measures in the federal workforce, public education, and military.
“During Black History Month, we pay tribute to these heroes and to so many others, but not simply because they’re Black heroes, but also because they are truly American heroes who inspire all of us, very much so,” Trump said at Thursday's event.
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