Independence National Historical Park - A Hopeful Update

We recently posted about the takedown of signs at the President’s House site at Independence National Historical Park. We also posted a call for more photos for Save Our Signs, both before and after takedowns occur – the images in this post come from Save Our Signs submissions, and we are still looking for more. We created a printable zine of the signs from the President’s House using the Save Our Signs photos.

Since our post, there has been intense activity from multiple groups in Philadelphia working to restore the site. Both Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) and the City of Philadelphia filed lawsuits against the administration seeking to restore the exhibit. ATAC is the group of black activists who originally spearheaded the movement to create the exhibit about slavery at the Independence hall site in the 2000s. The city had an existing agreement with the federal government that did not allow for changes at the site without their consent.

On February 16th, we learned that Judge Cynthia Rufe had ruled that the panels must be restored while the lawsuit proceeds. On February 19th, workers began restoring the panels to the President’s House site. While the lawsuit is not over yet, the message is clear: the community support for the site, spearheaded by ATAC, was effective in saving the interpretation at this site.

We know that censorship of interpretive signs is happening across the country. We hope that the victory in Philadelphia will inspire other communities to push back through activism, community engagement, and the legal system, on takedowns. We were also cheered by news that a coalition of groups is filing a national lawsuit to protect NPS interpretation from censorship – however, even without national lawsuit, the case of the President’s House shows the impact a group of invested locals can have on an NPS site, and brings us hope for the other sites under threat.