Philadelphia Sues After Park Service Removes President’s House Slavery Exhibit

The City of Philadelphia sued the Interior Department this week after National Park Service workers removed panels and videos about slavery from the President’s House Site at Independence National Historical Park. The removal took place Thursday, Jan. 22, and the city filed its federal lawsuit the same day, according to CBS News Philadelphia, NBC News and PBS NewsHour.

The site marks the house where George Washington and John Adams lived while Philadelphia was the nation’s capital. Washington brought enslaved people there. PBS reported that the exhibit’s panels gave names and biographical details of the nine people he and Martha Washington enslaved at the house, and that their names remain engraved on a wall at the entrance. The memorial opened in 2010, and the National Park Service and the city signed a cooperative agreement in 2006 to create it, NBC News reported.

The Interior Department said the removal followed an executive order President Donald Trump signed in March 2025, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” An Interior spokesperson told NBC News that agencies are reviewing interpretive materials and that, “following completion of the required review, the National Park Service is now taking appropriate action.” CBS reported that the department described the review as a check for accuracy and alignment with national values. The order directs agencies to remove content it calls “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives,” names Independence National Historical Park, and gives Interior Secretary Doug Burgum until July 4, 2026, to complete changes there, CBS reported.

The administration’s supporters say federal sites should present history without what the order calls content that inappropriately disparages Americans. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump is restoring truth and common sense and framed the change as honoring the full American story, NBC News reported.

The city’s suit, filed against Burgum and acting Park Service Director Jessica Bowron, asks a federal court to stop the exhibit’s permanent removal and to restore it with a preliminary injunction, according to PBS and NBC News. The city argues that slavery is central to the site’s story and that its management partnership gives it an equal say over design changes. Mayor Cherelle Parker said a 2006 agreement requires the parties to meet and confer before any exhibit changes, CBS News Philadelphia reported. The suit calls the removal “arbitrary and capricious,” and says the defendants “have provided no explanation at all,” NBC News reported.

Interior called the lawsuit frivolous and said it demeaned the Founding Fathers, PBS reported. The department did not say what will replace the removed exhibits. Paul Steinke of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia told CBS News Philadelphia the displays were taken down within minutes and were likely placed in storage.

Critics across the city’s political and civic life condemned the move. City Council President Kenyatta Johnson called it an effort to whitewash history, according to CBS and NBC News. Rep. Dwight Evans, a Pennsylvania Democrat, called it a “shameful desecration of this exhibit,” and Ed Stierli of the National Parks Conservation Association called the removal an insult to the enslaved people who lived there, PBS reported. Gov. Josh Shapiro said the president would “rewrite and whitewash” history, CBS reported, and the Black Journey, a local organization, said it would keep leading weekly tours at the site, according to NBC News.

No court dates had been announced as of the reports. The city said it learned of the removal on Thursday, NBC News reported.