Pa. Gov. Shapiro says 'protecting history' is crucial as Trump admin weighs removal of exhibits about slavery at Philly national park

Fallon Roth, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jul 29, 2025

Published in News & Features

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Gov. Josh Shapiro took a stand Tuesday against President Donald Trump’s administration’s moves to review and potentially remove exhibits about slavery at Independence National Historical Park as part of an effort to restrict content at national parks that reflect negatively on the United States.

“Protecting our history is about telling the truth, even when it is uncomfortable,” Shapiro said in a statement posted on X Tuesday afternoon without referencing Trump or members of his administration by name.

“Because if we don’t reckon with the reality of our past, we can’t learn from it and move forward. The fight for freedom has defined the American story for centuries. Trying to rewrite that history is impossible — and it goes against the very values our nation stands for," said Shapiro, a potential contender for the presidency in 2028 who hails from the Philly suburbs.

The first-term Democratic governor’s comment came in response to an Inquirer story published Monday that revealed more than a dozen displays that share historical information about slavery during the founding of America were flagged for the Trump administration’s review at Independence Park.

The evaluation, which could result in content being removed from parks by the fall, was prompted by Trump’s executive order that calls for the Interior Department to “ensure” there is no public facing content at national parks that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

Most of the displays flagged for review by one or more National Park Service employees tasked with doing so were at the President’s House Site, where Presidents George Washington and John Adams once lived. The house is now a powerful tribute to the paradox of liberty and slavery in a budding American nation and also serves as a memorial to the people Washington enslaved.

The exhibit was funded by city and federal dollars and opened in 2010 before it transferred to NPS ownership in 2015. Activists had pushed for the centering of the stories of the nine individuals who the first president enslaved at the site.

Other flagged exhibits or items are at Independence Hall, the Benjamin Franklin Museum, Second Bank, an outdoor wayside exhibit panel on Independence Mall, and a proposed redesigned exhibit.

The review comes ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States next year, an event that is likely to put the spotlight on Independence Park and its exhibits.

It’s not the first time Shapiro has waded into a political battle related to content at local sites managed by the National Park Service — though last time was against his own party’s administration. Shapiro joined Pennsylvania Republicans in 2024 in pushing back against a proposal from NPS under then-President Joe Biden to permanently remove a statue of William Penn as part of its rehabilitation of Welcome Park.

Shapiro has typically kept his actions against the Trump administration concentrated on policy critiques or to lawsuits when the president withholds federal funding.

But he has ramped up his public dissatisfaction with Trump and members of the GOP, particularly surrounding Medicaid cuts. In June, Shapiro told reporters that the Trump administration doesn’t “know how to govern.”

On Tuesday, he also announced he’s suing the Trump administration alongside 22 other states “to stop them for unlawfully defunding Planned Parenthood.”

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