NPS Pulls Slavery Exhibit at Washington's Philly Residence

Visitors to the place where George Washington lived as president will no longer see a National Park Service exhibit detailing the enslaved people who worked there, and the city of Philadelphia is suing over it. NPS staff on Thursday removed interpretive panels on slavery at the President's House Site in Philly's Independence National Historical Park, following a March 2025 executive order from President Trump directing agencies to "[restore] truth and sanity to American history," per the Washington Post. The display, developed with community groups and unveiled in 2010, had detailed Washington's slave ownership, a wider overview on slavery, and the lives of the enslaved individuals who labored at the residence.

The removal, captured by ABC Action News, is part of a wider review of park content tied to race, gender, LGBTQ+ issues, slavery, and climate change, per Trump's executive order. An Interior Department spokesperson says that federal agencies were required to make sure materials reflect "accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values," and that the NPS is now "remov[ing] or revis[ing] interpretive materials in accordance with the order." Meanwhile, at Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts, officials have similarly pulled films that discussed the history of labor, while another site in Arizona was told to take down a panel that included a photo of a visitor holding a Pride flag.

Activists who helped shape the Philadelphia exhibit say the changes amount to historical erasure. "They have taken down every single sign, monitors unplugged, everything," says Mijuel K. Johnson, a member of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, which partnered with the NPS on the original project. Michael Coard, a founding member of the group, said stripping out references to slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was an attempt to scrub history. Former park chief Cindy MacLeod called the move "vandalism."

The timing has added to the backlash. Independence Hall, which is steps away from the President's House Site, is currently closed for renovations ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. ABC notes that the city of Philadelphia has filed a lawsuit over the exhibit's removal, naming the NPS and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum as defendants, among others. "On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the birth of this country, this is a historical outrage," Coard says, per the Post. "This is historical blasphemy."