National Park Service staff took down slavery exhibits at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall on Thursday following a Trump-ordered crackdown on “distorted” narratives about the nation’s history.
Crews have dismantled plaques at the President’s House detailing the history of nine people enslaved by President George Washington, which came under scrutiny by the Trump administration last summer, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Staff in fatigue green uniforms were captured by WPVI, an ABC-owned station in Philadelphia, taking down the slavery memorial as onlookers recorded with their phones.
“I’m just following my orders,” one park employee repeatedly told the Inquirer, which reported that he did not acknowledge whether he was doing so because of a Trump directive.
In March last year, Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
“Over the past decade, 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,” it reads. “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 order directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to scrutinize public monuments, memorials, statues, and other similar properties that “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history.”
In May, Burgum released his own order implementing the president’s directives. He instructed the National Park Service and other bodies under his purview to review properties for content that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).”
The Inquirer later obtained internal comments showing that the President’s House was one of several slavery displays in Philadelphia flagged for review by the Trump administration.
“In accordance with Secretary’s Order No. 3431... all interpretive signage is currently under review,” an Interior Department spokesperson told the outlet in July. “This effort reinforces our commitment to telling the full and accurate story of our nation’s past. Each piece of public feedback we receive is manually reviewed and evaluated.”
Cherelle Parker, Philadelphia’s first Black female mayor, filed a lawsuit on Thursday naming Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron. The complaint asked a judge to declare the “arbitrary and capricious” removal of the slavery exhibits as unlawful.
“We are right now researching and reviewing the cooperative agreement between the City of Philadelphia and federal government that dates back to 2006,” Parker 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.”
The White House, Interior Department, and National Park Service did not immediately return a request for comment.
