Appeals Court Greenlights Whitewashing of Slavery at Washington's Philadelphia Residence
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A U.S. 3rd Circuit panel sided with the Trump administration, allowing the reinstallation of educational panels at the President's House in Philadelphia that critics say sanitize and minimize the brutal history of slavery.
On Friday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit delivered a technical ruling that enables the federal government to reinstall interpretive panels at the President's House historic site in Philadelphia. These panels, set to replace those removed in 2025 under an executive order that suppressed narratives 'disparaging Americans past or living,' are designed to highlight the so-called 'achievements' of the nation while only superficially addressing the horrors of slavery.
The new panels, which are ready for installation, make only passing mention of the nine enslaved people forced to live with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, as well as the abolitionist movement, constitutional treatment of slavery, the end of slavery in Pennsylvania, and the perspectives of Washington and John Adams. They also reference the 20th-century civil-rights movement. However, crucial details from the original displays—such as a map of slave-trade routes, a comprehensive slavery timeline, and the headline 'The Dirty Business of Slavery'—have been deliberately omitted, effectively erasing the full scope of America’s racist past.
The city of Philadelphia, which fought the removal of the original panels, urged the appeals court to halt the reinstatement so it could respond to the administration’s request. The city argued that the President’s House is 'a site of exceptional importance to Philadelphia and the Nation, developed through years of federal-local collaboration to tell a historically significant and long-suppressed story.'
The administration, intent on whitewashing history, claims the revised panels comply with the executive order and include information about enslaved people, pushing for installation 'without further delay.' This ruling follows a previous district-court decision ordering the removal of the original panels—a decision now overturned by a panel of judges appointed by Trump, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, highlighting the bipartisan complicity in sanitizing America’s legacy of slavery.