Slavery exhibits at the President's House memorial in Philly have been removed following Trump administration push

Fallon Roth and Maggie Prosser, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jan 22, 2026

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PHILADELPHIA —The National Park Service has started dismantling exhibits about slavery at the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park.

The President’s House, which serves as a memorial to the nine people George Washington enslaved there during the founding of America, has come under increased scrutiny by President Donald Trump’s administration. The president and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered content at national parks that “inappropriately disparage” the U.S. to be reviewed and potentially removed.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, an Independence Park employee told an Inquirer reporter that his supervisor instructed him to take down all the displays at the iconic site earlier that day. Two other individuals later joined the employee to help remove the educational exhibits. The final display was removed at 4:30, the whole process taking about an hour and a half. The displays were then loaded into the back of white Park Service pickup truck.

“I’m just following my orders,” the employee repeatedly said, refusing to say whether he was tasked with removing the displays because of the executive order.

One by one, the exhibits — including those entitled “Life Under Slavery” and “The Dirty Business of Slavery” — were taken down.

The demolition Thursday, with wrenches and crude crowbars, elicited questions — and exclamations, like “this is crazy” and “damn shame — from a few passersby.

At least one asked if the exhibits are coming down “because of this administration.”

Another, Jali Wicker, 74, was walking through the Mall when he stopped and asked why the exhibits were being removed.

Wicker, who stopped to record as NPS workers unscrewed bolts from the brick walls, said the sight overwhelmed and disturbed him.

“You can try to erase our history, but we’re still going to survive,” Wicker said. “History has shown that, slavery has shown that. … And you want to go back?”

Michael Coard, leader of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition which has helped lead an effort to protect the President’s House from the Trump administration said in an interview Thursday that the removal of the displays is an “abomination,” adding that Trump is a “monstrosity in the White House.”

“It’s a disgrace and that’s an understatement,” Coard said. “I cannot say what I’m thinking because as a criminal defense attorney, I know better. What’s going on now is absolutely unheard of in the history of the United States of America.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Interior or the National Park Service did not immediately return a request for comment.

The move comes in advance of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States on July 4 where Philadelphia and its historic exhibits will be in the national spotlight.

The fate of exhibits at the President’s House have been in limbo for several months since the Department of Interior signaled it would review and potentially remove flagged displays.

More than a dozen displays about slavery were flagged for the Trump administration’s review, with the President’s House coming under particular scrutiny, The Inquirer reported. Removal of noncompliant displays were initially slated to come on Sept. 17.

But that didn’t happen — until now.

Instead, Philadelphians continued to fuel their advocacy and efforts to protect the President’s House. Leading the charge is the President’s House/Slavery Memorial Alliance spearheaded by ATAC and other stakeholders who helped shape the site in the early 2000s.

Coard said Thursday that his team anticipated something like this happening and that “we have a plan.”

Elected officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro and members of Philadelphia City Council, also condemned the sanitization of historical exhibits.

Independence Park employees were tasked with evaluating displays for content that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” according to Trump’s March 2025 executive order.

A total of 13 items across six exhibits at the President’s House were flagged for the Trump administration’s review.

This included parts of displays entitled: “Life Under Slavery,” “History Lost & Found,” “The Executive Branch,” “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” “The House and the People Who Worked & Lived In It,” and an illustration with the words “An Act respecting fugitives from Justice.”

Other exhibits across the park were flagged for review, but it’s unclear if there are plans for park employees to also remove those displays.

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