A federal appeals court on Thursday cleared the way for the Trump administration to replace slavery exhibit panels that were removed in January from George Washington’s Philadelphia Executive Mansion, vacating a February injunction that had ordered the National Park Service to put the material back.
The three-judge Third Circuit panel ruled unanimously, and Judge Thomas M. Hardiman wrote for the court that the proposed replacement panels are full of historical context. He said they highlight the momentous events at the President’s House and other sites at Independence National Historical Park, and that they acknowledge the evil of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, while reminding viewers of the essential humanity of the nine people enslaved there.
That ruling matters because the panels sit at the center of a fight over who gets to shape the history presented at one of Philadelphia’s most visible national historic sites. The injunction from District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe had required the National Park Service to restore interpretive panels telling the story of the nine people enslaved at the President’s House, after President Donald Trump’s administration removed the slavery exhibit in January.
Historians had argued the proposed replacement panels would whitewash George Washington’s role in slavery. The panel did not accept that view. It said the new material contains historical context, and it also held that Philadelphia could press its contract argument over the city’s donation of the President’s House to the federal government, even though that was not enough to keep the injunction in place.
The practical next step is still uncertain. The National Park Service restored most exhibits, but some metal interpretive panels could not be reinstalled because they needed fixes, and it was not immediately clear whether the agency will reinstall all of the removed panels or rely only on the replacements. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Interior said, “Trust in Trump.” The city said it had no immediate comment.
