Fate of historic slavery exhibit targeted by Trump hangs in the balance

Attorney and tour guide Raina Yancey wants the federal government to fully restore a slavery exhibit taken down months ago at the President's House in Philadelphia. Adrian Florido hide caption

President Trump's fight to reshape how American history is told has hit another hurdle.

Last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked his year-old executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History." It ordered the Interior Secretary to remove from national parks and historic sites content that "inappropriately disparages Americans past or living."

Months later, federal employees took crowbars and peeled away an exhibit about nine African-Americans President George Washington had enslaved at the nation's first executive mansion in Philadelphia.

The removal sparked bipartisan condemnation and a separate lengthy legal battle that has wound its way to a federal court of appeals.

Some of the exhibit has since been restored, but a lot is still missing.

Lawyer and activist Michael Coard spent years fighting to create a site telling the stories of the people enslaved by George Washington in Philadelphia. Henry Larson hide caption

Michael Coard is a lawyer and activist who advocated for the exhibit's creation. It opened in 2010.

"It was the grand opening of the first slave memorial of its kind on federal property in the history of the U.S. We thought it would last forever. But 15 years later, the destruction came," Coard said.

He and others want the full exhibit restored by the Fourth of July, when people will descend on historic Philadelphia to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding.

NPR's Adrian Florido spoke with Coard, attorney and tour guide Raina Yancey and others at the President's House in Philadelphia to understand the deadline pressure activists now face, and how they're still telling the story of Washington's enslaved workers as the legal battle wages on.

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