Court clears way for Trump admin to 'immediately' replace slavery exhibit in Philadelphia ahead of July 4
Advocates for the exhibit told ABC News the changes would 'whitewash' history.
On the eve of America's 250th birthday, an appeals court cleared the way for the Trump administration to revamp the slavery exhibit at the President's House in Philadelphia, in a way critics say "whitewashes" the history and brutality of slavery.
President Donald Trump has asserted in the past on social media that institutions "across the country" focus too much on "how bad Slavery was," instead of focusing about the "success" and "brightness" of the country.
On Friday morning, an appeals court issued a mandate that finalized its June 18 decision that the Trump administration can remove and replace the informational display panels at the slavery memorial at the President’s House in Philadelphia-- the nation’s first executive mansion, where President George Washington enslaved nine men and women.
The mandate was requested by the Interior Department in a motion filed on Thursday seeking the “immediate” replacement of the panels.
"The President’s House is an important national historical site, and the Government submits that the President’s House exhibits should be fully installed without further delay," the motion says.
The Interior Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request when asked on Friday if the panels will be replaced by the July 4 holiday this weekend.
The June 18 appeals court ruling stems from a January federal lawsuit filed by the city of Philadelphia against the Interior Department and National Park Service, seeking to preserve the slavery memorial.
The city of Philadelphia filed a motion on Friday afternoon to appeal the court’s decision, arguing that the court erred in issuing the mandate because it did not give the city enough time to respond to the federal government’s motion on Thursday.
ABC News reached out to the city of Philadelphia but a request for comment was not immediately returned.
What could change
The memorial, which opened to the public in December 2010 after a broad coalition of advocates, historians and public officials rallied for its creation, was taken down in January without notice by the Trump administration and was partially restored in February after a federal judge’s ruling.
The panels share the stories of the nice people who were enslaved at the site by Washington and now, only 16 of the 34 are standing. The Trump administration is seeking to replace the original panels with new messaging that was published in April on the National Park Service website. A preliminary injunction by a federal judge initially ordered the Trump to preserve the “status quo” at the exhibit, but the appeals court ruling in June dissolved this decision.
“What Trump wants to do and plans to do is to literally whitewash and censor the site,” said Philadelphia attorney Michael Coard, the founder of Avenging the Ancestor’s Coalition – a group that Coard founded in 2002 to launch a movement to convince Philadelphia to build the slavery memorial.
In making his argument, Coard pointed to the proposed removal of images that show the beating and shooting of enslaved Black men.
He also pointed to what he called “two glaring examples” on the National Park Service website that are “blatantly offensive from a racial standpoint,” as they seek to downplay the severity of slavery and Washington's role in it.
"One [of the panels] makes the argument that well, slavery under George Washington in Philadelphia at the President's House wasn't really that bad, because the enslaved Black folks there had ‘a modicum of autonomy,'" Coard said.
Coard also pointed to new proposed language that highlights Washington’s “discomfort” with slavery, despite the fact that he enslaved hundreds of men, women and children.
“The second point, in terms of concrete examples, deal with the language on the website that well, George Washington really wasn't a cruel slave master because he had ‘discomfort’ with the issue of slavery,” Coard said.
“Now, how the hell can you make that point? Because the fact is that he enslaved 316 Black men, women, and children at Mount Vernon. If he had discomfort, what the hell do you think they had?”
A spokesperson for the Interior Department told ABC News that the removal and planned replacement of the panels complies with President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
The order called for the removal of “negative” and “divisive” materials from national parks and content that “disparages” Americans, living or dead.
The spokesperson said that the new proposed panels underscore the administration's commitment to "celebrating and acknowledging the full breadth of our nation's history."
Coard said that as America celebrates the 250th’s anniversary of its founding, what happens at the President’s House could have a wide-ranging impact in the country.
“The President's House site has become basically a test case, almost like the canary in the coal mine,” Coard told ABC News in an interview on Wednesday. “They want to see what the Trump administration can do with this, and if they can destroy this, they [can] destroy similar sites across the country.”
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