Victory for Philly President’s House: Trump’s campaign to erase Black history blocked

The people won a victory Feb. 16 against President Donald Trump’s campaign to rewrite U.S. history and deny centuries of Black resistance to settler colonial racism when U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the restoration of a Philadelphia exhibit on enslavement. Under the administration’s orders, on Jan. 22, National Park Service (NPS) workers removed 13 panels about the history of enslavement in the U.S. on display at the historic President’s House.  On Jan. 30, the City of Philadelphia challenged Trump’s actions in federal court.

Judge Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee, ordered the federal government to “restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of Jan. 21, 2026,” the day before the exhibits were removed. (Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 16) While the order does not give the government a deadline to restore the panels, it does require the NPS to maintain the site and ensure the safety of the exhibits.

Rufe likened the Trump administration’s attempts to control exhibits in national parks to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s novel, “1984,” noting “As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s “1984” now existed … this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe noted: “It does not.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 16)

Noting that Philadelphia will be the center of the 250th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence, Rufe wrote: “If the President’s House is left dismembered throughout this dispute, so too is the history it recounts, and the City’s relationship to that history.”  

The Trump administration is likely to appeal Rufe’s decision.

‘The Dirty Business of Slavery’

The panels, under the general theme, “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” were installed at the site of the President’s House that marks the location where the first U.S. president, George Washington, lived during most of his two terms of office and held nine Africans in bondage in Philadelphia, despite prohibitions against enslavement in Pennsylvania.

The graves of some of those enslaved were uncovered in 2002 during the relocation of the Liberty Bell. For the next eight years, the Black-led Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) held recurring meetings and demonstrations demanding that Independence National Historical Park agree to the creation of a prominent Slavery Memorial to highlight the President’s House project.

Funded by city and federal money, the President’s House Site opened in 2010. Ownership was transferred to the NPS in 2015.

The panels tell the stories of the nine enslaved people: Austin and Paris — horsemen and stable hands; Hercules — the chief cook; Christopher Sheels — Washington’s personal attendant; Richmond — Hercules’ son and kitchen worker; Giles — a driver and stable hand; Ona Marie Judge — Martha Washington’s personal maid; Moll — nursemaid to the Washingtons’ grandchildren; and Joe Richardson — a stable hand.

The display highlights Washington’s signing of the infamous 1793 Fugitive Slave Act that put those who escaped enslavement at risk of recapture for the rest of their lives. Artwork displayed his hand holding a quill signing the act, with a posse of white men with clubs and guns in the background shooting at four Black men escaping from enslavement.

The exhibit focused on the contradictory coexistence of liberty for whites and enslavement for Africans. One panel called “Life Under Slavery” illustrated the, deprivation of food, clothing and shelter, whippings, beatings, torture and rapes endured by enslaved people.

Since the panels were removed, ATAC continued to hold demonstrations, mass Zoom calls, and press conferences challenging Trump’s actions.  At a press conference on Jan. 28, before the federal case was heard, Michael Coard, leader of ATAC, stated: “If you are Black in America you know about slavery, you’re enraged about police brutality and mass incarceration.  Race is everything in America. Trump can issue his anti-Black executive orders, but he can’t erase history.”

ATAC was an hour into a Presidents’ Day event at the site when they learned about Rufe’s order.  When Coard told the crowd of around 100 people, “I have great news:  We just won in federal court,” the crowd cheered and chanted “When we fight, we win!”

Broad strokes of Trump attacks

Last May, all 433 National Park Service installations and other Interior Department holdings were given a mid-September 2025 deadline to “rid exhibits, signs, films and bookstores of statements and literature” that Trump and Secretary of the Interior Douglas Burgum determined unduly focused on “how bad slavery was.” (New York Times, Aug. 19, 2025)

These NPS sites under attack are not limited to exposing how bad enslavement was.  They include displays concerned with climate change, Indigenous history and resistance, and resistance by women and immigrants to capitalism’s exploitation of their labor. 

In the most recent attack, in the dark of night on Feb. 10, NPS personnel outrageously removed Stonewall Park’s historic pride flag, designed by artist Gilbert Baker. They replaced the Progress Pride flag with the U.S. flag, using it as a prop in the effort to erase LGBTQIA2S+ history and the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969. (workers.org)

Dismantling historic monuments depicting class struggles will not eradicate the over 400 years of racism, colonialism, white supremacy and imperialism in the U.S. It won’t change the facts that Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, workers, immigrants and LGBTQIA2S+ activists organized and fought back, often together.