Philadelphia has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration after the National Park Service dismantled a slavery-related exhibit at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park. The site was once home to George Washington and John Adams, and the exhibit included information about people enslaved by Washington.
The lawsuit, lodged on Thursday, names the US Department of the Interior, Secretary Doug Burgum, the National Park Service, and its acting director Jessica Bowron as defendants. It seeks a court order to restore the exhibits while the case proceeds.
City lawyers argued that removing the displays would be a material alteration to the exhibit, which was created in collaboration with the city and opened in 2010. Officials claimed they were not informed in advance of the changes.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro criticised the decision, stating that President Trump “will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash our history”. Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson added that removing the exhibits is “an effort to whitewash American history”.
The removal is part of a broader Trump administration effort to eliminate cultural content deemed to promote “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology”, as outlined in a March executive order. Similar changes have been made at the Smithsonian Institution, including the removal of text about Trump’s impeachment and the 6 January 2021 Capitol attack from his official portrait display.
