Trump administration replaces slavery exhibit at Washington's Philadelphia home

Philadelphia mayor says overnight removal ‘violates community trust’

• The Trump administration replaced an exhibit on slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia with panels that historians said whitewash the nation’s history, the Associated Press reported.
• The original panels, installed in 2010, documented the lives of nine enslaved people who lived in the home alongside George and Martha Washington in the 1790s.
• Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said the overnight removal showed the federal government “understands this action is shameful” and “violates community trust.”
• The Associated Press reported that the replacement comes as Trump has made dismantling diversity and inclusion initiatives a priority across federal cultural institutions.

The Trump administration on Wednesday replaced an exhibit on slavery at the site of George Washington’s Philadelphia home with panels that historians said whitewash the nation’s history, the Associated Press reported. The new exhibit sits on the same ground where the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776.

The original panels, installed in 2010 at a site known as the President’s House on Independence Mall, documented the lives of nine enslaved people who lived in the home alongside George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said the nighttime removal showed the federal government understood the action was wrong. “Overnight, under the cover of darkness, the federal government removed panels at the President’s House that told a thorough history of Philadelphia,” Parker said. “It was allowed to do this by the decision of the federal court, but that it did so at night shows it understands this action is shameful, that it violates community trust.”

The Associated Press reported that the changed exhibition comes as Trump has made dismantling diversity and inclusion initiatives a priority in an aggressive campaign to overhaul some of America’s most sacred cultural, historic and educational institutions.