Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor Ezra Wohlgelernter released a statement calling for the restoration of the President’s House Exhibit on Independence Mall. The exhibit is built on the site of George Washington’s presidential residence in Philadelphia and memorializes the nine enslaved people who lived at the residence and discusses Washington’s connection to slavery in the United States. The exhibit, which opened in 2010, was created as part of a cooperative agreement between the City of Philadelphia and the National Park Service but was removed by the Park Service last week.
The City of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit over the removal of the exhibit, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held an initial hearing on the matter on Friday morning.
“Today’s court hearing on the City’s motion to enjoin the federal government from removing references to slavery from the President’s House site is not a political issue. Rather, it is an issue of right against wrong,” Wohlgelernter said. “As Chancellor of the country’s oldest Bar Association, with founders who included some of our nation’s founders, I support the City’s effort to keep this exhibit, and the stories of the nine enslaved individuals who lived at the site, accessible to the public. Exhibits like this one and museums exist to present the full record – both the admirable and the painful – so that we can learn from the experiences of those who came before us. Preserving historical truth is not ‘taking sides.’ It is a commitment to education, integrity and justice.”
