The National Park Service dismantled exhibits about slavery at the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park, provoking a lawsuit from Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration.
The President’s House, which serves as a memorial to the nine people George Washington enslaved there during the founding of the United States, has come under increased scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration. The president and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last spring ordered displays at national parks that “inappropriately disparage” the U.S. to be reviewed and potentially removed.
Around 3 p.m. Thursday, an Independence Park employee who would not give his name told an Inquirer reporter that his supervisor had instructed him to take down all the displays at the iconic site earlier that day. Three other individuals later joined the employee to help remove the educational exhibits. The final display was removed at 4:30 p.m. The displays were then loaded into the back of a white Park Service pickup truck.
“I’m just following my orders,” the employee repeatedly said, not acknowledging if he was tasked with removing the displays because of the executive order.
One by one, the exhibits — including those titled “Life Under Slavery” and “The Dirty Business of Slavery” — were taken down.
The demolition Thursday, with wrenches and crowbars, elicited questions — and exclamations, like “this is crazy” and “damn shame” — from a few passersby.
At least one asked if the exhibits are coming down “because of this administration.”
Another, Jali Wicker, 74, was walking through Independence Mall when he stopped and asked why the content was being removed.
Wicker, who recorded as NPS workers unscrewed bolts from the brick walls, said the sight overwhelmed and disturbed him.
“You can try to erase our history, but we’re still going to survive,” Wicker said. “History has shown that, slavery has shown that. … And you want to go back?”
Michael Coard, leader of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, which has helped lead an effort to protect the President’s House from the Trump administration, said in an interview Thursday that the removal of the displays is an “abomination” and called Trump a “monstrosity in the White House.”
“It’s a disgrace, and that’s an understatement,” Coard said. “I cannot say what I’m thinking, because as a criminal defense attorney, I know better. What’s going on now is absolutely unheard of in the history of the United States of America.”
Jack Williams, 47, shouted at NPS workers as they loaded the panels into the bed of a department pickup truck.
“It’s absolutely sickening,” Williams said. He took issue with workers complying with the executive order, and urged defiance by federal employees.
Williams’ message: “Take a day off, call in sick. Don’t be the one on the news … whitewashing history.”
Mijuel Johnson, a community organizer who leads the Black Journey: African American History Walking Tour and works with Avenging the Ancestors, called the action “outrageous.”
“We see how brave [NPS employees] are,” Johnson said. “My ancestors were brave enough to run from tyranny and these guys can’t be brave enough to oppose an order to take down some plaques.”
Johnson added: “Our history will be taught — it’ll be taught as it should be, warts and all.”
Representatives of the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service did not immediately return a request for comment.
The move comes in advance of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States on July Fourth, when Philadelphia and its historic exhibits will be in the national spotlight.
The fate of exhibits at the President’s House has been in limbo for months since the Department of the Interior signaled it would review and potentially remove flagged displays.
More than a dozen displays about slavery were flagged for the Trump administration’s review, with the President’s House coming under particular scrutiny, The Inquirer reported. Removal of noncompliant displays was initially slated to come on Sept. 17.
But that didn’t happen — until now.
Instead, Philadelphians continued their advocacy and efforts to protect the President’s House. Leading the charge is the President’s House/Slavery Memorial Alliance, spearheaded by Avenging the Ancestors and other stakeholders who helped shape the site in the early 2000s.
Coard said Thursday that his team anticipated something like this happening and that “we have a plan.”
Elected officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro and members of Philadelphia City Council, previously condemned the sanitization of historical exhibits.
Parker on Thursday, after her administration filed its lawsuit, said that the city and federal government in 2006 signed a cooperative agreement that may require advance notice for changes to the site. The city is reviewing its options, she said.
“We are right now researching and reviewing the cooperative agreement between the City of Philadelphia and federal government that dates back to 2006,” she said. “It requires parties to meet and confer if there are any changes to be made to any exhibit, so anything that is outside that agreement, it requires that our Law Department review it.”
Parker, the city’s first Black female mayor, has avoided confrontation with Trump since he took office last year. Asked what her personal feelings are about the federal government removing material on slavery, Parker demurred.
“In moments like this, it requires that I be the leader that I need to be for our city, and I can’t allow my pride, ego, or emotions to dictate what my actions will be,” she said.
The city’s lawsuit names Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron. The complaint asks a judge to order that the removal of “interpretive panels referencing slavery” was an “arbitrary and capricious” act, making it unlawful.
There is no dispute over the fact that slaves resided at the President’s House or that Washington owned slaves, the suit says.
Furthermore, the President’s House has been designated a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site pursuant to a 1998 act of Congress. In removing exhibits referencing slavery, the Trump administration acted without statutory authority, the city argues.
“Defendants have provided no explanation at all for their removal of the historical, educational displays at the President’s House site, let alone a reasoned one,” the lawsuit says.
Independence Park employees were tasked with evaluating displays for content that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” according to Trump’s March 2025 executive order.
A total of 13 items across six exhibits at the President’s House were initially flagged for the Trump administration’s review, but on Thursday everything was taken down.
This included parts of displays titled: “Life Under Slavery,” “History Lost & Found,” “The Executive Branch,” “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” “The House and the People Who Worked & Lived In It,” and an illustration with the words “An Act respecting fugitives from Justice.”
Other exhibits across the park were flagged for review, but it is unclear if there are plans for park employees to also remove those displays.
Staff writers Abraham Gutman and Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.
