The Trump administration stoked outrage on Thursday after revelations it was scrapping commemorative quarter designs celebrating slavery's abolition, women's voting rights, and the civil rights movement.
The original proposal, developed over multiple years by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, would have featured images of Frederick Douglass, suffrage activists, and Ruby Bridges, a prominent American civil rights activist.
Instead, the U.S. Mint announced Wednesday that 2026's special quarters will feature the nation's early presidents and founding-era imagery, drawing from the Mayflower Compact, the Revolutionary War, and the Gettysburg Address, the Wall Street Journal reported. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent holds final approval authority over coin designs.
U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach told Fox News Digital the move steers away from what he called a focus on "DEI and Critical Race Theory policies."
“The designs on these historic coins depict the story of America’s journey toward a ‘more perfect union,’ and celebrate America’s defining ideals of liberty,” acting Mint Director Kristie McNally said in a statement.
The move comes after Trump ousted all Commission of Fine Arts members this year, the panel legally required to review coin designs.
It also comes amid a yet-unapproved proposal for a Trump dollar coin. Beach has circulated early designs featuring Trump's image from his assassination attempt, with the phrase "fight, fight, fight."
The move sparked backlash from critics.
Jennifer J. Monteith, a certified mediator, chided on X, "Another way Trump & the GOP are trying to erase 250 years of American history directed at Blacks, Women, Slavery, Civil Rights Leaders..."
Stephanie Grace, editorial director and columnist at The Times-Picayune, lamented on X, "They killed the quarter that would have honored Ruby Bridges."
Public education advocate Lanet Greenhaw chided on X, "Deplorable! Trump must not be allowed to re-write or cancel history!!"
Trip Gabriel, reporter at The New York Times, chimed in on X, "A corrective to the writing-out of nonwhite Americans from our history is to watch Ken Burns's "The American Revolution" on PBS. It is a remarkably broad story with many chapters they never taught you in school."
Kyle Whitmire, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, added on X, "Some of our country's greatest achievements are not considered achievements by this administration."
Patt Morrison, who was also part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team, wrote on X, "You only wonder what took him so long, given that there is evidently no level of disrespect for women and people of color that this regime will not sink to."
J. Thibodeaux, an assistant professor, wrote on X, "Not surprised. And not surprising that the American people will simply let this happen."