Whitewashing Wounds: Slavery and Native History Removed from National Parks

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Escaped slave Gordon, also known as "Whipped Peter," showing his scarred back at a medical examination, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Library of Congress)
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The Trump administration has ordered the National Park Service to remove certain historical exhibits, including displays on slavery and Native tribes. Among them is the famous 1863 photograph of “Whipped Peter,” a man whose scarred back exposed the horror of slavery.

The image, which once fueled the abolitionist movement, is now being removed from Fort Pulaski in Georgia.

Across the country, signs challenging Confederate myths, exhibits on the enslaved at George Washington’s home, and even a children’s booklet explaining Robert E. Lee’s decision to fight for slavery are being removed.

The White House says the changes are meant to remove negativity. Critics call it erasure, arguing that America cannot heal from wounds it refuses to confront and no executive order can rewrite the scars left on the nation.


Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.

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AURN News with Ebony McMorris