The U.S. Department of Education has hung a banner of the assassinated right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk on its Washington headquarters alongside historical figures including Martin Luther King Jr. and Booker T. Washington.
The banner featuring Kirk is part of a display celebrating the United States鈥� 250th anniversary, .
, Kirk鈥檚 image can be seen along with banners of Benjamin Franklin, King, Washington, Anne Sullivan, and Catharine Beecher.
鈥淩echarting the course toward a brighter future for American education,鈥� says one banner hung along with the historical figures鈥�. 鈥淭urning the page to the next 250 years of academic excellence,鈥� says another.
Sullivan was the longtime teacher of Helen Keller, and her work became a blueprint for working with students who are blind, deaf-blind, and visually impaired, .
Beecher was an advocate for the education of women in the 1800s, with her sister, an institution where women could study subjects that previously only men could study.
Washington, born into slavery, became a champion for vocational education for former slaves. and expanded it into a school on a 540-acre campus training Black students in skilled trades including carpentry, cabinetmaking, printing, shoemaking and tinsmithing.
President Donald Trump and GOP leaders have lionized Kirk since his shooting at a Utah university in September 2025.
Teachers across the country were fired or placed on leave ahead of investigations into social media comments critiquing Kirk and allegedly implying approval of Kirk鈥檚 death, often at the urging of Republican state leaders.
Republican state leaders have also teamed up with Turning Point USA, Kirk鈥檚 organization, to help it open new high school chapters.
And days after Kirk鈥檚 death, the Education Department launched a coalition of mostly right-wing groups including Turning Point USA, called the America 250 Civics Coalition, to produce educational programming for schools and universities for America鈥檚 250th birthday.
