{"id":94413,"date":"2026-01-23T07:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T07:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/94413\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T07:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T07:21:12","slug":"park-service-crews-dismantle-presidents-house-exhibit-on-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/94413\/","title":{"rendered":"Park Service crews dismantle President\u2019s House exhibit on slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the National Park Service removed signage around the President\u2019s House historic site<\/a> on Independence Mall on Thursday afternoon, in what appeared to be the fulfillment of an executive order from the White House meant to remove displays in America\u2019s national parks that \u201cdisparage\u201d the nation.<\/p>\n

The signage was part of the exhibition \u201cThe President\u2019s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,\u201d<\/a> which was unveiled in December 2010. It provided information about the nine enslaved people who then-president George Washington brought with him to the Philadelphia presidential residence and Washington\u2019s ties to slavery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Signage detailing the lives of enslaved people at the President\u2019s House site on Independence Mall sits against a wall after being removed by National Park Service workers Thursday afternoon. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

Starting after 3 p.m., placards were ripped from the wall around the site with crowbars as people walked by, some heading to the Liberty Bell Center. Signs were unbolted from the poles overlooking the dig site where America\u2019s first \u201cWhite House\u201d had stood until 1832. They were stacked together alongside a wall, and then taken away around 4:30 p.m. in a park service truck. No indication was provided where the signs and exhibition parts will go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a damn shame,\u201d said one onlooker who didn\u2019t wish to be identified as he walked by. \u201cAll because of one man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Billy Penn reached out to both the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior by email Thursday, but neither had responded by the time this article was published.<\/p>\n

Delaware County resident Juan Suarez had brought his family visiting from Colombia to see Independence National Historical Park and the exhibit on Thursday afternoon. He was surprised when he saw the signs being taken down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been living in Philadelphia for like 23 years, and I remember when it was first shocking to discover these quarters,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s history, you know. You can either run away from it or you can actually face it and just accept it and try to do better, but the fact that they are going to erase this, this is outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Juan Suarez from Delaware County (right), visiting the President\u2019s House with relatives from Colombia. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u2018Stay tuned\u2019<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s House came under scrutiny after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March, titled \u201crestoring truth and sanity to American history.\u201d<\/a> It called for the removal from federal monuments, memorials and similar sites of displays that \u201ccontain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.\u201d Instead, it said, those sites should showcase \u201cthe greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Signs were placed near those sites directing people to report any parts of historic sites that they felt didn\u2019t align with the executive order\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC)<\/a>, a group that had a key role in ensuring that the story of the enslaved people was recognized and had been protesting the impending move, called the removal \u201chistorically outrageous and blatantly racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut ATAC has been ready,\u201d attorney Michael Coard, the founder for ATAC, wrote in a response for comment. \u201cStay tuned. We will announce our powerful action shortly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Inquirer reports that Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s office<\/a> has responded to the signs\u2019 removal by filing a lawsuit, claiming the federal government did not honor a 2006 cooperative agreement that may require advanced notice of changes to the site.<\/p>\n

As of Thursday evening, information about the President\u2019s House\u2019s history and its ties to slavery remain available on the National Park Service\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As the sun set Thursday, the only remnant of the exhibit was the etched names of the nine enslaved people on a wall near the entrance to the Liberty Bell. Suarez said that people will not simply forget the history behind the exhibition because the signs are gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis display, it\u2019s very moving,\u201d he said. \u201cIt teaches all of us a really big lesson, that freedom is not free. That actually people had to fight and struggle and even go to war and give up their lives, so all of us could be here free. The fact that they are going to take this down so they could try to erase that part of history is sad, outrageous, shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the National Park Service removed signage around the President\u2019s House historic site on Independence Mall on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[564,94,6551,98,46341,69,71,70,50,723],"class_list":["post-94413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-featured","tag-history","tag-independence-mall","tag-independence-national-historical-park","tag-national-parks-service","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-politics","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}