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PHILADELPHIA — <\/span>Outraged critics accused President Donald Trump of \u201cwhitewashing history\u201d on Friday after the National Park Service removed an exhibit on slavery at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park in response to his executive order \u201crestoring truth and sanity to American history\u201d on display at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks. <\/p>\n Empty bolt holes and shadows are all that remains on the brick walls where explanatory panels were displayed at the President\u2019s House Site, where George and Martha Washington lived with the people they owned as property during the years when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital. One woman cried silently at their absence. Someone left a bouquet of flowers. A hand-lettered sign said \u201cSlavery was real.\u201d<\/p>\n Crews on Thursday removed the exhibit which included the names and other biographical details about the nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the presidential mansion. Their names remain engraved on a cement wall at the entrance.<\/p>\n Seeking to stop the display’s permanent removal, the city of Philadelphia on Thursday sued Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron.<\/p>\n The panels came down because Trump’s order requires federal agencies to review interpretive materials to \u201censure accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values,\u201d an Interior Department statement said. It called the city’s lawsuit frivolous, aimed at \u201cdemeaning our brave Founding Fathers who set the brilliant road map for the greatest country in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The department did not answer questions about what will replace the exhibits that were removed. <\/p>\n The City of Philadelphia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n The people enslaved at the mansion included Oney Judge, who famously ran away and remained free despite Washington’s attempts to return her to bondage. Slavery is central to the site’s story, Philadelphia’s lawsuit argues, adding that the terms of the city’s management partnership with the federal government gives the city equal say over any design changes. <\/p>\n Critics condemned the removals as confirmation that the Trump administration seeks to erase unflattering aspects of American history.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir shameful desecration of this exhibit raises broader, disturbing questions about this administration\u2019s continued abuse of power and commitment to whitewashing history,\u201d said Rep. Dwight Evans, a Pennsylvania Democrat.<\/p>\n Taking pride in American independence shouldn\u2019t mean hiding its mistakes, said Ed Stierli, senior mid-Atlantic regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, which works to protect national parks. These historic sites should help Americans grapple with the difficult truths and contradictions in how we frame history, he said, and removing the exhibit is an insult to the memory of the enslaved people who lived there.<\/p>\n \u201cIt reverses years of collaborative work by the National Park Service, City of Philadelphia, and community members, and sets a dangerous precedent of prioritizing nostalgia over the truth,\u201d Stieri said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt shows that the United States is still unwilling to reckon with the horrors of its past and would rather prefer to sanitize the history that it has and try to present a convenient lie,\u201d said Timothy Welbeck, director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University.<\/p>\n The order, which Trump signed last March, accused the Biden administration of advancing a \u201ccorrosive ideology\u201d at the nation’s historic sites. <\/p>\n \u201cAt Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania \u2014 where our Nation declared that all men are created equal \u2014 the prior administration sponsored training by an organization that advocates dismantling \u2018Western foundations\u2019 and \u2018interrogating institutional racism\u2019 and pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist,\u201d the order states.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Dorany Pineda contributed to this story from Los Angeles. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n