The Donald Trump administration replaced a slavery exhibit at the site of President George Washington’s Philadelphia home on July 15. The exhibit, which had been on display since 2010, shared the stories of nine enslaved people whom Washington held at the residence during his presidency.
The exhibit has now sparked backlash, with critics saying it offers an incomplete portrayal of U.S. history.
Donald Trump’s administration faces intense backlash over structural changes to the historic Philadelphia site
The move came after a federal appeals court ruled Philadelphia had no authority over the memorial’s interpretive content. Posting on X, Mayor Cherelle Parker slammed the federal government, saying it acted “under the cover of darkness.”
Parker, who has served as the 100th mayor of Philadelphia since 2024 and is the first woman to hold the office, wrote, “A portrayal that was the hard-fought and hard-won result of the effort of countless federal, state, and local officials as well as advocates, including Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, dedicated to telling the truth.”
She further stated, “A broad coalition of people who worked together to identify, create, design, fund, and implement the President’s House. They did not always agree, but together they reached an agreement. They shared a truth that I hold self-evident: you cannot erase American history. Overnight, under the cover of darkness, the federal government removed panels at the President’s House that told a thorough history of Philadelphia. 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.”
According to The Guardian, the National Park Service removed the original exhibit in January 2026 to comply with one of President Trump’s executive orders. After Philadelphia sued, a federal judge temporarily ordered the panels restored, but an appeals court later ruled that the administration could replace them.
The revised panels continue to mention slavery. However, they have replaced headings like ‘The Dirty Business of Slavery’ with ‘Celebrating Independence Throughout the Years’ and also removed a map of slave trade routes, reports Reuters.
Michael Coard, a Philadelphia attorney and founder of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, compared the exhibit changes to the censorship and historical revisionism depicted in George Orwell’s 1984. The attorney said, “I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, right-wing or left-wing: This is some scary sh*t. People often talk about fascism, and they talk about it [as] creeping. It’s not creeping anymore; it’s sprinting.
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