LDF Decries Planned Closures of Multiple Branches of the National Archives and Records Administration

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) adamantly opposes the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) plan to close its Chicago and Bay Area Regional Facilities and Federal Records Centers, and relocate records at its Seattle Federal Records Center. Moving records from these branches will jeopardize public access to an invaluable collection of archival material and information documenting the history of Black and indigenous people, immigrants, workers, and other communities across this nation.

NARA is the nation's record keeper, responsible for preserving and providing access to the records that document the history and functioning of the federal government. The Chicago branch alone houses approximately 140,000 cubic feet of records from 85 federal agencies, including records documenting the Great Migration, the Pullman Porters and Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the Afro-American Patrolmen's League, the federal investigation into the killing of Fred Hampton, and Chinese Exclusion Act case files from Chicago and St. Paul. The Bay Area branch contains documents about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and has approximately 500 researchers reviewing 3,000 original records each year. The vast majority of these materials have not been digitized, making the continued accessibility of these regional archival facilities essential to ensuring important historical records remain available to the public. These actions are aligned with the Trump administration's war on the truthful telling and preservation of American history, particularly efforts to erase the history and heritage of Black people and other people of color.

LDF Director of Strategic Initiatives Jin Hee Lee issued the following statement:

"NARA has been chronically underfunded, and the answer to that challenge cannot be a reduction of public access to the records entrusted to its care. The federal government should be investing in NARA's preservation, staffing, facilities, and digitization capacity, not forcing its branches to retreat from communities and researchers who rely on these collections. We urge NARA and Congress to halt the closure of these branches, provide transparency about the future accessibility of their collections, and ensure that these irreplaceable materials remain accessible to the public. These NARA branches contain some of the most significant records of Black Americans, Asian Americans, and other people of color during periods of our history that we must never forget. Preserving our nation's history means ensuring their availability and accessibility: people must be able to find these records, study them, and use them to understand the country we inherited and the country we are still fighting to shape into a more perfect union."

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.