The Whitewashing of American History Under the Guise of Restoring Truth and Sanity
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
"Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation" is the title of the exhibit that was part of the President's House historical site in Philadelphia. The exhibit told the stories of nine Africans who lived there while enslaved by George Washington.
President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) to remove the exhibit from the President's House in Philadelphia, was neither coincidence nor an embarrassing accident. Trump's EO was aimed at reviewing and revising historical content in parks and museums based on his previous order "Restoring Truth and Sanity to America". His goal? To erase history that he feels disparages Americans past or living.
The slap in the face, just before the beginning of Black History Month, felt roundly by America’s people of color, was purposeful. It was as purposeful as his removal of Martin Luther King Day from the National Park Service’s list of free-entry days and the decision to remove the MLK bust from the Oval Office.
Our nation’s founders and the civil rights giants who followed—figures like NAACP National Field Secretary, Medgar Evers, who was murdered by a Klansman for registering Black people to vote; and John Lewis, who fought tirelessly alongside MLK Jr. to helped pave the way for equal rights—would surely be troubled by how the hard-won, gradual progress toward “a more perfect union” and the promise that “all are created equal” is now being unraveled with such speed and ease.
The saddest of ironies barreling towards us is this July 4th- our country’s 250th celebration.
This celebration is set to be held under the direction of a regime that is the antithesis of the principals that the United States of America has always stood for. Will American ideals be turned into a mockery of phony pomp and circumstance; trampled and desecrated?
Were all the bloodshed and lives lost through the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Jim Crow era, the 1960s’ Civil Rights Movement, Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, all wasted?
Did Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, the young Civil Rights workers, murdered in Mississippi in June 1964 for signing Black folks up to vote, die in vain?!
Americans who care about the well-being of others—who believe we are all created equal and owe one another the same rights, freedoms, and dignity we claim for ourselves—can see clearly that there is profound injustice in how this government treats certain people.
With so many in our country lacking what is fair and good, this government is treating people with outright cruelty in every possible way. It’s being said again and again: we have come to a time like no other.
Whether or not you believe in a God, this is a time when goodness is more meaningful to combat and defeat the evil that is trying to take us all hostage.
When freedoms and rights are being ripped from anyone, they are being ripped from all of us. Have your singular voice join with others in whatever way you can. But be safe.
Congressman and civil rights leader, John Lewis said, “Make good trouble.” and asked: "If not us, then who? If not now, then when?" It is us. The time is now.
Watch: Court hearing underway after slavery exhibit removed from President's House in Philadelphia”
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