By Kanishka Singh<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) – U.S. National Park Service staff have removed a slavery exhibit from a Philadelphia historic site in line with \u200bPresident Donald Trump’s claims, rejected by civil rights groups, of “anti-American ideology” at \u200chistorical and cultural institutions.<\/p>\n
The exhibit was at the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park, \u200cwhere the first U.S. president, George Washington, lived when the Pennsylvania city was the nation’s capital. It described the history of slavery and Washington’s ownership of enslaved people.<\/p>\n
The outdoor exhibit was dismantled and removed on Thursday, according to media footage and activists.<\/p>\n
“The President \u2060has directed federal agencies to \u200creview interpretive materials to ensure accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values,” the Interior Department, which includes the park service, told \u200dReuters in a statement responding to a query on the exhibit’s removal.<\/p>\n
“Following completion of the required review, the National Park Service is now taking action to remove or revise interpretive materials \u200bin accordance with the Order.”<\/p>\n
Late on Thursday, the President’s House website still said \u200cits “outdoor exhibits examine the paradox between slavery and freedom in the new nation.”<\/p>\n
The Republican president alarmed civil rights advocates last year with an executive order that said he was fighting against “a false revision of history.\u201d He has complained about what he casts as excessive focus on “how bad Slavery was.”<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said “Trump \u2060will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash \u200bour history,” responding to a video of the \u200bdismantling of the exhibits posted by the Philadelphia Inquirer.<\/p>\n
Civil rights groups say the Trump administration is rolling back social progress and undermining the \u200dacknowledgment of critical phases \u2060of American history.<\/p>\n
They have criticized Trump over his immigration crackdown, assault on diversity initiatives, funding freeze on universities over pro-Palestinian protests and attacks against cultural \u2060institutions for a focus on slavery.<\/p>\n
The largest U.S. civil rights group said this month he was \u200cbeing deceptive when he said civil rights hurt white people.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Kanishka \u200cSingh in Washington; Editing by William Mallard)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) – U.S. National Park Service staff have removed a slavery exhibit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[27059,46352,46350,14416,46349,98,97,46353,69,71,70,368,46354,46351],"class_list":["post-94445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-civil-rights","tag-civil-rights-groups","tag-cultural-institutions","tag-george-washington","tag-history-of-slavery","tag-independence-national-historical-park","tag-national-park-service","tag-outdoor-exhibit","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-the-philadelphia-inquirer","tag-the-president39s-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94445","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=94445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}