Trump officials order removal of photograph of enslaved man's scars

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

September 15, 2025 at 5:15 p.m. EDT



'The Scourged Back” shows the scarred back of escaped slave Peter Gordon in Louisiana, 1863. (McPherson & Oliver/National Gallery of Art)


The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks, according to four people familiar with the matter, including a historic photograph of a formerly enslaved man showing scars on his back.

The individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media, said the removals were in line with President Donald Trump’s March executive order directing the Interior Department to eliminate information that reflects a “corrosive ideology” that disparages historic Americans. National Park Service officials are broadly interpreting that directive to apply to information on racism, sexism, slavery, gay rights or persecution of Indigenous people.

Following Trump’s order, Interior Department officials issued policies ordering agency employees to report any information, including signage and gift shop items, that might be out of compliance. Trump officials also launched an effort asking park visitors to report offending material, but they mostly received criticisms of the administration and praise for the parks.

The latest orders include removing information at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in West Virginia, two people familiar with the matter said, where the abolitionist John Brown led a raid seeking to arm slaves for a revolt. Staff have also been told that information at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, where George Washington kept slaves, does not comply with the policy, according to a third individual.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/09/15/national-parks-slavery-information-removal/

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No paywall (gift)

"Price of eggs"?

[eShirl]

1. MAGA needs their History sugar-coated

the raw truth is too hard to face

[sheshe2]

18. whitewashed

[DrFunkenstein]

2. Really putting the "white" in whitewashing

I really hope someone is taking notes on all the crap these racist POS Trumpers are doing so it can be undone asap.

[debsy]

16. How are we going to undo any of this?

They are coming for the Democratic Party.

[Paladin]

3. It figures.

trump will have photos of KKK rallies and German-American Bund gatherings at national parks, before it's over.

[The Wizard]

4. White supremacy

yeah right.

[moniss]

5. They will likely eliminate all mention of Wounded Knee or Sand Creek and

turn the sites into condos.

[Deuxcents]

6. Hiding these historical facts, pictures or documents will not make them disappear..we will still own them

And light will be shed on them whether the current resident of our White House likes it or not.

[Evolve Dammit]

7. Re-Writing history. Period.

[raccoon]

21. Just like in 1984. We're living it now.

[Evolve Dammit]

34. Yes indeed. Didn't take that long either. 9 months? They are the terrorists

[C Moon]

8. Aside from the obvious (racist creeps), what would the reasoning be behind that?!

[BumRushDaShow]

10. From the excerpt

...eliminate information that reflects a “corrosive ideology” that disparages historic Americans. National Park Service officials are broadly interpreting that directive to apply to information on racism, sexism, slavery, gay rights or persecution of Indigenous people.

[Jim__]

9. The scars sort of go against the fantasy that slavery was actually good for the slaves.

[Botany]

11. Don't want to denigrate all those "Historic American" slave owners. They were such fine people.

Trump is conducting a war on black and brown people not only in America but world wide too.
His and Musk’s removal of USAID support in Africa had killed > 300,000* Africans by May with
over half of them being children the # of dead by now has to be over a million.

Trump is having a war on people of color end of story and > 30% of Americans are fine with that
because they are racist, sexist, anti-intellectualist, and Christo Fascists aka too his base.

* projections of 14 million dead are very real …. Brain Kilmead must be happy.

[USS_Dauntless]

12. I hate Donald J. Trump.

I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him.

[Joinfortmill]

22. A million times over.

[Solly Mack]

13. ...

[Bayard]

14. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1945 comment on the Holocaust:

"Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”

trump is that bastard.

[BattleRow]

23. I'd never seen that Eisenhower comment.

Thank you.

[Duppers]

31. +100

Thank you 👍

[surfered]

15. Hide history, hide the truth

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Let's all take turns making up history and facts.

[Cha]

19. Asshole Fucking Treasonous Racists!

I bet Future History doesn't Erase this Violent time in History.

[Joinfortmill]

20. They can't hide the truth. What despicable monsters. I hate them.

[Gimpyknee]

24. This shit needs to stop.

Why is nobody in Congress speaking out against this?

Comic Ari Shaffir has the answer.

[thought crime]

25. "Sanitizing" history for the new Jim Crow Era.

Republicans are engaged in massive information warfare.

[LoisB]

26. I want that piece of excrement to come back in his next life as a Black man in 1840 with

a full memory of his White House life. I want him in the cotton fields of Ala - goddamn - bama with Simon Legree as his overseer and Willie Lynch as his owner.

[kimbutgar]

27. I remember years ago seeing this and now they want to hide what was the result of slavery?

I hope another museum snags this picture to keep in their museums.

My son was about 9 years old and we took him to the Smithsonian and he saw the picture and started crying.

[Grins]

28. Try to imagine the extreme pettiness to seek out photos like this and hide them

The bigotry, racism, desire to rewrite history on full display.

[a kennedy]

29. I have never seen that......

[Marcuse]

30. Slavery was a hoax.

or not?

[J_William_Ryan]

32. Authoritarian regimes

such as Trump’s are motivated by fear – fear of history, facts, and the truth, in this case the truth and facts of America’s past.

And authoritarian regimes such as Trump’s attempt to whitewash America’s racist past in an effort to conceal the regime’s racist present.

[Kid Berwyn]

33. Mr. Gordon was enlisting in the Union Army when photographed.

From America’s Black Holocaust Museum:

The Scourged Back: This slave named Gordon ran for 80 miles to join the Union Forces in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in March 1863. This famous photo of the welts on his badly "scourged back" was taken while he was being fitted for a uniform.

https://www.abhmuseum.org/the-scourged-back-how-runaway-slave-and-soldier-private-gordon-changed-history/

[Clouds Passing]

35. That picture makes me cry. The regime's removal of it makes me cry even harder.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

36. That photo is widely available in many books on the Civil War

If Krasnov thinks he can whitewash history, he has his head up his oversized ass.

[LudwigPastorius]

37. _