The fight over replacing historical panels at the President’s House in Philadelphia is continuing with legal skirmishing by the Federal government. In January, the National Park Service removed the panels at the house where Washington had stayed while he was president that spoke about the slaves he owned that worked at the site. The city and other entities sued the National Park Service (NPS) to halt further removals at the site and to have the the NPS restore the old signage. The District Court Judge gave a temporary injunction halting the removals and requiring the Service to put the old signs up again. Some of the signage was put back up, but the Third Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the order to replace the panels, while leaving the order against making any more changes at the site. The Federal government then rewrote the signage, with the text becoming public last week.
The Third Circuit has just come out with a new order that the NPS can’t put the rewritten signs up at the President’s House. The three judge panel rejected the appeal of the District Court judge’s injunction that the National Park Service shall:
“provide immediate, continuing, and proper maintenance to theSite, its exhibits, grounds, artifacts, video monitors, and recordings which SHALL remain operable…”
For example, text on one notes that the U.S. Constitution did not contain the word “slavery,” and another one argues that Washington had “doubts” about the institution.
“Privately, George Washington often expressed discomfort with the institution and a desire to see it abolished,” it reads. “Yet as a Virginia plantation owner, his wealth and livelihood were deeply tied to it.””
