PhiladelphiaAP —
The Trump administration followed through on its pledge to rework and then reinstall panels about slavery at the site of President George Washington’s home in Philadelphia.
Critics have warned that the new panels replacing the ones exhibited since 2010 whitewash the history of slavery. They were installed Wednesday morning in the same area where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.
“Overnight, under the cover of darkness, the federal government removed panels at the President’s House that told a thorough history of Philadelphia,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said Wednesday. “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 original panels were put in place in 2010 and told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.
