Trump Administration Replaces Slavery Exhibits with Whitewashed Panels at Philadelphia Park

The Trump administration has installed altered exhibits at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia that minimize the Founding Fathers' role in slavery, following a court order to restore previously removed panels. The new texts replace the outdoor exhibition "Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation," co-created by the city and federal government in 2010. Michael Coard, founder of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), described the new panels as "sanitized, whitewashed, and censored." The panels overemphasize George Washington's role in drafting the Fairfax Resolves against the slave trade while making no mention of the hundreds of individuals he enslaved. One panel states Washington "often expressed discomfort" with slavery, prompting Coard to question why the victimizer's discomfort is highlighted over the victims' suffering. Another panel claims enslaved people at the President's House experienced "a greater modicum of autonomy" than elsewhere in the South. The Department of Interior defended the panels as acknowledging "the evils of slavery" while telling the stories of nine enslaved individuals. Coard and ATAC plan to pursue all available legal options against the new exhibition.