Whenever graffiti artists in our community painted murals near the levee, a man painted the concrete slab in different shades of gray. Desperate to erase any sign of artistic expression, they used whatever paint they could find, creating blotches of varying hues to hide the colorful mosaic beneath. They were enforcing a plainness that betrayed the unique cultural expression of the community’s residents. Nowadays, when I drive by, I never see any graffiti or painted murals on that wall. The artists gave up trying to make their mark. This conflict is reminiscent of Black people in America attempting to preserve their history, to illustrate it, and share it with the world, and of the steps taken by white people to hide that history. Nicole Hannah-Jones, the author of The 1619 Project, suggested, “white Americans desire to be free of a past they do not want to remember, while Black Americans remain bound to a past they can never forget.”

Efforts to remove or limit access to texts, lessons, and exhibits that highlight the experiences of Black people demonstrate this phenomenon. For instance, last fall, the Trump administration ordered the removal of “The Scourged Back,” an 1863 photo of an enslaved man, Peter Gordon. The raised scars crisscrossing his back stood as irrefutable evidence of the violence inflicted on Black people pursuing freedom. It was precisely because of its power as a historical image that authorities chose to remove it. Indeed, many white Americans want to bury this history in an unmarked grave. They are like the man who carried those buckets of gray paint to the wall in our community, desperate to hide the urban art that lies beneath. The irony shouldn’t be lost on you that President Trump signed an order claiming to “restore truth and sanity to American history,” even as officials worked to limit public access to factual historical information. Slavery happened.

A letter signed by 45 Philadelphia organizations condemned efforts to alter or remove exhibits on Independence Mall last fall. Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, said, “Our job as historians is to examine history, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and tell the full story. Only by understanding the full story that we can improve, we can get better over time…. To interfere with it for political reasons or because somebody wants to tell a sort of sanitized version is just wrong.” This, he added, “is a disservice to those enslaved there.” Sadly, their warnings fell on deaf ears, at least as far as the administration was concerned. Last week, officials ordered the removal of the “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” exhibit at the President’s House, which honored the lives of nine people enslaved by President George Washington and his wife, First Lady Martha, who worked in their household. Dismantling this exhibit suggests the administration does not want the public to focus on the experiences of Black enslaved people, only on the white people who benefited from their labor. During their lives, enslaved Black people were deprived of the opportunity to tell their own stories, so removing these plaques condemns them to obscurity.

Let’s consider the names of the enslaved Black people made to work at the President’s house, the ones recently removed from public view. Austin, Paris, and Richmond were considered general workers at Mount Vernon; Hercules Posey was a skilled chef; Christopher Sheels was a valet; Joe Richardson and Giles were carriage drivers; Oney Judge was Martha and her grandchildren’s personal maid; and Moll was a nursemaid. As of 1799, at least 317 enslaved people lived at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Virginia estate. Like many white colonists, the nation’s first president financially depended on enslaved labor. Even his dentures were made in part by taking teeth, at least nine, from the mouths of people he owned. In this way, Washington used Black people he enslaved for spare parts. While he once argued that “taxation without representation” violated the rights of white colonists and signed a declaration claiming, “all men are created equal,” he blatantly disregarded the rights of Black people.

Enslaved Black people were silenced during their lives, prohibited from reading, writing, and documenting their experiences. So, removing their narratives in the modern era is yet another slight against them. Philadelphia officials have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that “the interpretive displays related to enslaved persons at the President’s House are an integral part of the exhibit,” and that authorities should restore it. Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania, suggested the Trump administration “will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash our history.” And while this may be true, based on what we’ve seen so far, this erasure of black history is only possible because of the buy-in from many white Americans. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the spread of white supremacist ideology and propaganda increased by 2000% during the first four years of Trump’s presidency. This is not happening with the support of only a few white people.

There’s something so intentional and desperate about removing an exhibit about slavery nearly a week before Black History Month. Knowing that many people will soon turn their attention to the experiences of Black folks, it felt like a preemptive attack on that focus, an effort to delegitimize that history. Just like the man with gray paint, who didn’t even take the time to ensure he used the same shade, they’re rushing to obscure the truth. Those who put forth a whitewashed version of American history need this evidence of racial injustice to disappear. But we should keep in mind that they are taking something precious to the black community and treating it like a stain to be blotted, removed, or hidden. It’s demeaning to Black people, but more so, it deprives our country of an opportunity to confront the prejudice that has divided the nation. The author, poet, and civil rights activist James Baldwin suggested, “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”