Shapiro takes legal action over removal of slavery exhibit at President’s House

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday filed a legal document in support of the City of Philadelphia’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over the removal of the slavery exhibit that was located at the President’s House at Independence Mall for more than two decades.

The President’s House, which is the site of where President George Washington lived and worked in Philadelphia while in office, had an exhibit that examined the history of slavery at the site until it was removed earlier this month by the National Park Service.

The City of Philadelphia’s lawsuit argues that the exhibit’s removal was in violation of a cooperative agreement on how to manage Independence Mall that was reached between the city and the federal government in 2006.

“Donald Trump will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash our history — but he picked the wrong city and the wrong Commonwealth,” Shapiro said in a press release. “In Pennsylvania, we learn from our history, even when it’s painful. We don’t erase it or pretend it didn’t happen. Because when we know where we’ve been, we can chart a better course for the future. Those displays aren’t just signs — they represent our shared history, and if we want to move forward as a nation, we have to be willing to tell the full story of where we came from.”

The Trump administration said that the exhibit’s removal was due to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March 2025 that orders the government to “take action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers or similar properties within the Department’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

Several plaques and markers depicting slavery were removed from the President’s House in Independence Historical Park in Philadelphia. NBC10’s Matt DeLucia reports.