PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It would take an act of Congress for the National Park Service to make any more changes at Independence National Historical Park under legislation introduced on Friday by Philadelphia Congressman Brendan Boyle.
Boyle’s bill, the Protecting American History Act, is a direct response to the removal of the President’s House slavery exhibits, which told the story of the nine people George Washington held as slaves in the first White House, at Sixth and Market streets.
“The Trump administration’s decision to remove slavery-related exhibits was wrong. It’s dishonest, and it shames us all. It was, in a word, censorship,” Boyle said.
The bill would require the Park Service to restore the exhibit to the condition it was in on Jan. 21, the day before crews abruptly removed all the displays.
That’s similar to a federal judge’s order, which was partly carried out before an appeals court stayed it. But the bill would also prohibit the Park Service from making any additions, removals, destruction, or interpretive changes of any kind at the park without prior approval from Congress. He believes blanket protection is necessary.
“I hesitate even saying this, because I don’t want this administration to be aware of just how much the Liberty Bell Pavilion is about the abolitionist movement, and the story toward full emancipation. Is that going to be next?”
Boyle says that by limiting the scope to the park in his own district, he believes it has the best chance of passage.
“We do not censor our history. It should be a simple principle. I thought it was until recent times,” Boyle said. “...It is only dictatorships and communist countries that whitewash their history.”