{"id":114149,"date":"2025-08-02T23:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T23:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/114149\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T23:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T23:10:09","slug":"philadelphia-activists-protest-move-to-remove-slavery-exhibits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/114149\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia activists protest move to remove slavery exhibits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal documents obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a> and The New York Times<\/a> show the National Park Service has identified 13 total exhibits for possible revision or removal, including \u201cLife Under Slavery\u201d and \u201cThe Dirty Business of Slavery\u201d at the President\u2019s House Site. Other sites under review include the Benjamin Franklin Museum, Independence Hall and the Second Bank of the United States, as well as a wayside outdoor panel.\n<\/p>\n

The \u201dFreedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation<\/a>\u201d exhibit, which opened in 2010, deeply examines the lives of the enslaved within Washington\u2019s Philadelphia household.
\n\"RozRoz McPherson stands in front of a panel exhibit about slavery during America\u2019s early years. McPhereson served as project director during the development of the site which opened in 2010. (Carmen Russell-Sluchansky\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

The site is framed by landmarks that include narratives that complicate the story of liberty in the young democracy. \u201cLife Under Slavery\u201d includes information about Richard Allen, who bought his and his family\u2019s freedom, and went on to found Mother Bethel. Another is an illustration of Washington signing the Fugitive Slave Act while a posse attacks Black men attempting to escape slavery.\n<\/p>\n

Anthony Wong, a visitor from New Jersey, who was not involved in the protest, said that the exhibits are essential to ensure people like him better understand the country\u2019s real history.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cAny records in general that outline our history is pretty important, even if they were in hindsight bad mistakes,\u201d he said while viewing \u201cThe Dirty Business of Slavery\u201d exhibit Saturday. \u201cThat\u2019s how you learn. And erasing histories, it\u2019s a sham. It\u2019s just a total disappointment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

He found it \u201ccontradictory\u201d that the Founding Fathers were \u201cwriting the Constitution themselves while owning slaves.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia is slated to play a central role in the 2026 celebrations, and the federal government and philanthropies have committed $85 million dollars<\/a> to renovate park infrastructure. Trump\u2019s executive order also included language directing the Department of the Interior to allocate \u201csufficient funding\u201d for \u201crestoring\u201d Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia ahead of the 250th anniversary. While much of that is earmarked for repairs and visitor experience upgrades, a significant portion is also meant to support \u201cinclusive storytelling\u201d that reflects the full complexity of American history.\n<\/p>\n

Participants in Saturday\u2019s rally expressed concern that visitors won\u2019t get to know the real history of the country if the exhibits are whitewashed and will, therefore, leave uninformed.\n<\/p>\n

However, Tyler said Philadelphians weren\u2019t giving up and would make sure that visitors still learn the truth.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have to stand out as volunteer docents on the corner, telling people who walked by about what happened on this site, we\u2019re going to make sure this story is told,\u201d he said. \u201cAfrican Americans haven\u2019t always had these wonderful memorials, and so we know how to make sure that we tell our story with or without it.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal documents obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times show the National Park Service has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":114150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,10188,1448,2830,1311,5005,34086,71827,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-114149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-old-city","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-president-donald-trump","14":"tag-semiquincentennial","15":"tag-slavery","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114961699576083458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}