The Trump administration has ordered the removal of art, signs and exhibits related to slavery from multiple national parks, including a photo of “The Scourged Back,” which showed the scars of a formerly enslaved man, The Washington Post reported Monday.
The 1863 photograph shows the scarred back of Peter Gordon, an enslaved man who escaped from a Louisiana plantation, bearing injuries from brutal whippings.
The removal of the photograph, along with other signs and exhibits — including more than 30 at Harpers Ferry — has been deemed “out of compliance” with President Donald Trump’s March executive order and will be removed or covered, according to the Post.
Trump’s March 27 order, titled “restoring truth and sanity to American history,” accused the Biden administration of advancing a “corrosive ideology” that distorted the narrative about American history. National Park Service officials are applying a broad interpretation to the executive order and what needs to be removed from the national park system, according to the Post.
In addition, information at the President’s House site in Philadelphia, where George Washington kept slaves, does not comply, the report said.
“Interpretive materials that disproportionately emphasize negative aspects of U.S. history or historical figures, without acknowledging broader context or national progress, can unintentionally distort understanding rather than enrich it,” Park Service spokesperson Rachel Pawlitz said in a statement to the Post.
It’s unclear from the Post’s report which national park displayed “The Scourged Back,” also known as “Whipped Peter.” The original is displayed at the National Gallery of Art.
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