Trump admin replaces President's House slavery exhibit panels overnight
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The President's House Site at the Independence National Historical Park on Wednesday after the Trump administration installed its own educational panels. Photo: Mike D'Onofrio/Axios
Trump administration-approved educational panels are now greeting visitors at Philadelphia's President's House slavery exhibit after months of legal fights over the site's interpretation of history.
Why it matters: The Trump administration has remade one of the nation's most visited historical sites.
Driving the news: The new panels were installed at Independence National Historical Park sometime Tuesday night, as South Philly hosted the MLB All-Star Game.
- On Wednesday, more than 20 new panels were in place, while a handful of television screens at the site were not operating.
Catch up quick: A federal appeals court recently cleared the way for the Trump administration to replace the panels at the site after months of legal back-and-forth with Mayor Cherelle Parker's administration.
- It's part of the Trump administration's push to eliminate what it calls "improper ideology" from national parks nationwide.
Parker said in a statement that the city will continue fighting to restore the old panels, despite its recent court loss.
- Parker also called the Trump administration's overnight installation of the new panels shameful, saying it violates community trust.
Context: The memorial, which opened in 2010, previously focused primarily on nine enslaved people who lived in George Washington's Philly home and their place in the nation's founding.
- Those 30-plus glass and ceramic panels included illustrations of enslaved individuals, many of which were among the first panels visitors saw when they entered the site.
What's new: Those illustrations have been removed. And while the exhibit still discusses slavery, it devotes less space to enslaved people.
- The panels about enslaved people have largely been relocated to the rear of the site, closer to the Liberty Bell.
- Visitors entering from Market Street now first encounter panels focused on executive power, the commander in chief, and a timeline "Celebrating Independence Throughout the Years," as well as illustrations of the nation's founders and historical figures, who are overwhelmingly white.
What they're saying: Michael Coard, head of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, which fought to preserve the President's House as it was, tells Axios the new panels put less emphasis on slavery and more on George Washington's accomplishments.
- "It's a watered-down version — not only in substance but in form," Coard says about the new panels.
The other side: A U.S. Department of the Interior spokesperson tells Axios the new panels are "full of historical context."
- "They acknowledge the evils of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the stories of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President's House, remind us of their essential humanity," the spokesperson adds.