The city of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit against Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the National Park Service for removing an outdoor exhibit on slavery. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
The city of Philadelphia has filed suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior and its secretary Doug Bergum for removing an outdoor exhibit on slavery in Independence National Historical Park.
The lawsuit filed Thursday also names the National Park Service and its director Jessica Bowron as defendants in the case and asks a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction to return the displays.
The exhibit is at the President’s House Site, where presidents George Washington and John Adams lived. The display memorializes nine people enslaved by Washington and shows a historical timeline of slavery.
“The interpretive displays relating to enslaved persons at President’s House are an integral part of the exhibit, and removing them would be a material alteration to the exhibit,” the city said in the filing.
Since President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, the administration has been working to remove museum exhibits and mentions of America’s history of slavery.
“Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” the order said. “This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
The executive order cited Independence National Park specifically, saying, “The prior administration advanced this corrosive ideology. At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — where our Nation declared that all men are created equal — the prior administration sponsored training by an organization that advocates dismantling ‘Western foundations’ and ‘interrogating institutional racism’ and pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist.”
As of Friday morning, the National Park Service still mentioned the enslaved people on its website with a photo of their names engraved in stone.
“The house stood in the shadow of Independence Hall, where the words ‘All men are created equal’ and ‘We the People’ were adopted, but they did not apply to all who lived in the new United States of America,” the website said.
The lawsuit said that the Interior Department gave no notice or explanation to the city about removing the displays.
“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 suit said.
City Council President Kenyatta Johnson called the removal “totally unacceptable” in a statement on X.
“Removing the exhibits is an effort to whitewash American history. History cannot be erased simply because it is uncomfortable,” he said. “Removing items from the President’s House merely changes the landscape, not the historical record.
“The altering or censoring of the memorial threatens the historical integrity of the site, undermines public understanding of our complete past, and erases the experiences of the enslaved individuals whom the memorial honors,” Johnson said.
Michael Coard, founding member of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, said on Facebook that the removal was “outrageous and blatantly racist.” In 2010, his organization helped install the exhibit.
