PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Third Circuit Court has reaffirmed its decision that the National Park Service can replace the explanatory panels at the President’s House exhibit with new ones created by the Trump administration.
The administration had asked the court for a “mandate” to replace the panels, noting that the slavery exhibit has not been changed, despite the court’s ruling last month that the Park Service could remove the old panels and install new materials. The court said its earlier order sufficed.
The mandate request indicates the administration is anxious to move quickly to replace the exhibit, but the Interior Department has not provided a timeline for the work.
The President’s House exhibit was built on the site of the first presidential residence, which housed George Washington and John Adams. Its panels and signage detailed the story of enslaved people in the home and the history of slavery in the U.S.
After completing the memorial in 2010, the city donated it to the National Park Service.
A government website with images of the new panels shows they would still have information on enslaved people who lived in the home, plus details on the abolitionist movement, how the Constitution treated slavery, the end of slavery in Pennsylvania and how Washington and his successor, John Adams, viewed and treated slavery, as well as information about the 20th Century Civil Rights movement. The replacement panels do not include some of detail in the earlier ones, such as a map of slave trade routes and a timeline on slavery. They also avoid critical headlines such as “The Dirty Business of Slavery.”
The City of Philadelphia, which sued over removal of the previous information, is trying to put the brakes on the new installation. The city on Friday asked the appeals court to recall its order from earlier in the day — at least long enough to allow the city to respond to the request Trump's administration made on Thursday.
Philadelphia said in its filing that it would be hurt if the new panels go back up: “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.”
