President Donald Trump’s administration is allowed to reinstall updated interpretive panels at a historic site in Philadelphia that have been the subject of criticism, an appeals court ruled on Friday.
Critics have claimed those panels that were at the site of George Washington’s home did not give a full picture of slavery at the time, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
“The new educational panels were designed to replace ones put up in 2010 that told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital,” the AP article read.
However, the older panels were removed after Trump signed an executive order regarding federally owned or operated historic sites across the nation.
In his order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” the president highlighted the fact that “Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”
He continued:
This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe.
The order said officials would take action “as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.”
The National Park Service (NPS) removed the older slavery exhibit panels at the Philadelphia site in January following Trump’s directive, according to Breitbart News.
Video footage showed men removing one that featured the words, “The Dirty Business of Slavery”:
“Friday’s ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit of Appeals, which is based in a courthouse across an intersection from the President’s House site, was a technical one to allow implementation of a ruling made last month,” the AP article said. “That ruling — by one judge Trump nominated, one nominated by former President George W. Bush, and one chosen by former President Barack Obama — said a lower court was wrong to force the federal government to take down its new panels.”
The outlet also linked to the NPS website featuring the updated panels. One of them is titled, “Fighting for Freedom” and gives detailed information about the Underground Railroad, the Emancipation Proclamation, Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and enslaved members of Washington’s household.
Another of the panels called, “The Constitution and Slavery” said: “The Declaration of Independence has guided every American freedom movement and inspired many others around the world.”
The court’s ruling comes as America celebrates its 250th birthday on Saturday.
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