Philadelphia —
Just days away from America’s 250th birthday — and steps away from where the country itself was born — visitors to the City of Brotherly Love are met with an unusual sight: an incomplete national park.
“It’s a living historical moment,” said Mijuel Johnson, a local guide with a group called The Black Journey, who spends much of his working days giving tours around Philadelphia’s historic district.
Right next to some of the most recognizable landmarks in the United States — including where the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence — a months-long legal battle between the City of Philadelphia and the Trump administration over an exhibit on slavery has paralyzed a portion of Independence National Historic Park.
The fight is just one part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign to purge cultural institutions of materials that conflict with the president’s political directives, supported by an executive order “restoring truth and sanity” to American history.
