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PHILADELPHIA ‒ The National Park Service has quietly updated a Philadelphia historic site by installing controversial displays that critics say downplay the brutality of slavery and gloss over President George Washington's enslavement of people.
The new signage replaces years-old displays that were either removed in early 2026 or were in limbo for months. The controversy involves extensive legal back-and-forth involving the Trump administration and the city of Philadelphia about the President's House, a site steps away from the Liberty Bell.
In an emailed response to USA TODAY, the Department of Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, said it was happy with court rulings allowing the administration to change the exhibits. The new panels, it said, "are full of historical context and highlight the momentous events that took place in the President’s House and the other sites at Independence National Historical Park."
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The displays "acknowledge the evils of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the stories of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President’s House, remind us of their essential humanity," the statement continued.
The switch happened on July 14 as the city was hosting the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, as first reported by local outlets, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and NBC10.
USA TODAY visited the site on July 19 and saw a mix of locals and tourists. Armed National Park police officers patrolled the area and a video surveillance system was in place. After the National Park Service initially removed the site's original displays, stories about the legal battle, anti-Trump messages, pro-preservation missives and the text from the original displays were taped up on the walls at the site.
In April, the National Park Service unveiled the new panels in a post online, telling USA TODAY at the time that they were meant to "engage in meaningful conversations about the moments and places that have shaped our country."
But Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), a group of activists, historians and preservationists who had advocated for the acknowledgement of the enslaved people who lived and worked at the site, at the time called the administration's signage "deeply offensive" and said the changes represent "yet another attempt to distort and censor American history."
The National Park Service, acting on a March 2025 executive order from the Trump administration, removed the original displays in January 2026. Those signs included information about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Washington's slave ownership, the brutality under which enslaved people labored and how the early American economy was propped up by the unpaid labor of enslaved people and indentured servants.
The new panels focus on occupants of the President's House, where George Washington and John Adams lived during their respective terms, while Philadelphia was still the nation's capital. Other panels highlight Independence National Park, the executive branch, Philadelphia's role in the American Revolution and how Americans have celebrated their independence since 1776. There are panels about slavery and about enslaved people, but the original panels all dealt with the institution of slavery and its impact on human lives.
Meanwhile, the administration, the Interior Department said, encourages Americans to "engage in meaningful conversations about the moments that have shaped our country. By telling the full story, every triumph, every challenge, and every step toward a more perfect union we strengthen our shared understanding and ensure that future generations inherit not just the land we love, but the truth of the journey that brought us here."
But activists say what the Trump administration calls "truth" is a distorted version of history. In a July 5 op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Michael Coard, an attorney and activist who founded Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, wrote that the new President's House "racially whitewashes, at best, and 'racistly' censors, at worst, the abject evil of slavery."
At a commemoration at the site on July 4, Coard vowed that the fight wasn't over. "You can't love something unless you know it," he told 100 or so people gathered at the site. "You have to know the good, the bad and the ugly."
Phaedra Trethan is a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writing about history and Americana. Contact her by email at [email protected], on X @wordsbyphaedra, on BlueSky @byphaedra, or on Threads @by_phaedra.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump administration cheers controversial history display installation
