PHILADELPHIA—On Thursday, Jan. 22, at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, the exhibit marking slavery at the President’s House across the street from the Constitution Center and Independence Hall was suddenly, and quietly, removed from public view.
“I’m just following my orders,” said one of the National Park workers taking down the historical markers, while another said it was coming down “because of this administration.”
The site of the controversy is the President’s House, where the remains of the former residence of Presidents George Washington and John Adams still stand. While John Adams never owned any slaves, the first President of the United States, George Washington, brought nine enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon to the Philadelphia residence.
Washington eventually replaced the slave laborers with German indentured servants, knowing full well the extent of anti-slavery sentiment in Philadelphia. Before this, Oney Judge, a 17-year-old girl, the personal slave of Martha Washington, fled the President’s House and was ferried away to freedom by Philadelphia’s Black community. Hercules, Washington’s personal chef, escaped to freedom in Philadelphia during the last years of Washington’s Presidency.
When the site was fully excavated in 2007, more than 300,000 people visited the dig site.
The dialectical contradiction between freedom and slavery at the heart of the American Revolution and the War of Independence was exactly what the exhibit aimed to demonstrate in sharing the stories of the enslaved workers who lived and labored in the heart of the new republic’s capital.
The exhibit was completed in 2010, where posted signage and video media portray the history of the residency, and highlight the roles of enslaved workers in Washington’s household, as well as a broader summary of slavery in early American society.
But why did the Trump administration take aim at an educational historical landmark?
Executive Order 14253, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” signed by President Donald Trump early in his new reign aims to give the federal government authority to—in their eyes— “ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).” The order claims that instead these entities should “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
Many who oppose the action argue that the recent right-wing surge of MAGA anti-intellectualism aims to destroy real American history and replace it with a white supremacist, idealist fantasy. It is argued that the attacks on Black history, DEI, etc., are not “woke distractions” from blue-collar economic issues, but are fronts on the war for the nation’s culture, and the removal of this Philadelphia exhibit is but another barrage of heavy artillery on this front.
The Mayor of Philadelphia, Cherelle Parker, slammed the removal as illegal. “Let me affirm for the residents of the city of Philadelphia that there is a cooperative agreement between the city and the federal government that dates back to 2006,” Parker said. “That agreement requires parties to meet and confer if there are to be any changes made to an exhibit. And our City Solicitor, Renee Garcia, is working in conjunction with the amazing members of our law department team, in working to follow up on that cooperative agreement. And we will keep you posted as to the results of all of our actions.”
Chris Rabb, Pennsylvania State Rep and current congressional candidate for Pennsylvania’s third district, said: “We will not allow this revisionism, nor the authoritarian impulses behind it, to stand. Community leaders, educators, scholars, and everyday Philadelphians must mobilize to defend and restore the narratives that honor the lives of those whom history tried—and failed—to silence.”
On January 30, the first hearing for City of Philadelphia v. Burgum was held at the Eastern Pennsylvania federal courthouse in the city. Justice Cynthia Rufe, whom George W. Bush appointed to the court, heard opening statements from the city and the federal government’s counsels.
City Solicitor Renee Garcia laid out the three key witnesses to the city’s legal argument that the removal of the President’s House interpretive panels violated decades of precedent for intergovernmental cooperation. The first two witnesses, Joyce Wilkerson and Everett Gillerson, former chiefs of staff to Mayors John Street and Michael Nutter, respectively, testified that the shared goal between the National Park Service, the City, and citizens was to tell a robust history of enslaved Africans in the cradle of the new republic.
The city’s argument that the federal government had acted capriciously in destroying the exhibit without consultation was rebuffed in court by DOJ lawyer, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory in den Berken.
When asked whether he had been pressured to take legal action in a December interview in the Philadelphia Inquirer, his superior, Attorney David Metcalf answered, “I will also say that I would be very surprised if that ever happened to me… I don’t see it as a problem here.”
Disputing the city’s motion for an injunction to immediately restore the exhibit, the feds claimed that the city lacked legal standing altogether, that the city had not established irreparable harm (that which cannot be compensated with money), and finally that the motion would damage public interest and the “balance of equities.”
A particularly illuminating exchange between Judge Rufe and Assistant U.S. Attorney is paraphrased below:
Judge Rufe: “I think it is frightening to think the city was not consulted. Tour guides will change their tours. The script is changing, but not a historical fact.”
In den Berken: “Scripts change every day. The city has no right. They’re challenging agency discretion. There is no framework to check the National Parks Service.”
Judge Rufe: “Oh, so the executive branch has absolute power?”
In den Berken: “This administration issued the executive order that authorized the change. If the public wants something different, that is what elections are for.
Justice Rufe: “Oh, so it bounces back and forth every four years! Counsel, we have three coequal branches of government. You don’t deal with that well in the brief. The big inquiry is why the government decided to change behavior suddenly. There is no clear authority for the executive branch to destroy an exhibit.”
The Assistant U.S. Attorney would go on to claim that, “Although many people feel strongly about this [exhibit] one way, other people may disagree or feel strongly another way. Ultimately, the government gets to choose the message it wants to convey.” To which Judge Rufe called a “dangerous” sentiment.
“It is horrifying to listen to,” she said. “It changes on the whims of someone in charge? I’m sorry, that is not what we elected anybody for.”
The tour guides who interpret Philadelphia’s many historical sites for a living are one of many groups mobilizing to defend and restore the President’s House. Denise, a member of the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides, reported that she decided to attend the public hearing after a large rally held shortly after the NPS stripped the exhibit.
Another tour group, the Black Journey, led by Mijuel K. Johnson, has co-signed the Avenging the Ancestor Coalition’s (ATAC) amici brief to the court in order to explain the recent history of the now desecrated exhibit. ATAC spokesperson and local columnist Michael Coard recently led a coalition call laying out a 30-day action plan to fight for the restoration of the original President’s House and Slavery Memorial in Philadelphia.
ATAC will mobilize with the support of Democratic politicians like Bob Brady and Kenyatta Johnson, Black clergy like Rev. Gregory Holston and Rev. Carolyn Cavaness, tourism industry leaders, and scores of historical and cultural workers in the region. They have begun circulating a petition to the President to restore and protect the exhibit. Additionally, the coalition will rally “to restore the truth” in Philadelphia on February 10 at Independence Mall.
Judge Rufe has issued an order barring further changes to the President’s House while the case proceeds.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
