Examples of Censorship from National Parks Conservation Association et. al. v. Department of the Interior, et. al.

In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order directing the rewriting and sanitization of American history and science at national parks. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum followed suit on May 20, issuing a secretary’s order that launched the implementation of the president’s directive within the National Park Service (NPS). These orders have forced NPS staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant history and scientific knowledge. 

The National Park Service escalated its implementation of the Secretary’s order in January 2026, with interpretive signs — detailing the contributions of historically marginalized populations, atrocities perpetuated against particular communities, and the long term impact of scientific developments — either removed or flagged for removal. Those reportedly include the following examples:

• At the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, officials removed an exhibit that, according to the Park Service, “examin[ed] the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation” and described the critical role that enslaved people played in the operation of the home during George Washington’s presidency. One of the removed signs discussed Ona Judge, a woman the Park Service described as “a talented seamstress” who “became Martha Washington’s personal maid as a teenager” and who escaped enslavement and evaded recapture. On February 16, 2026, a federal judge in Philadelphia ordered that removing the exhibit likely violated the law and must be restored, and further barred the Department of the Interior or the Park Service from removing or modifying the exhibit without Philadelphia’s agreement or court intervention.  
• Park Service staff also reportedly altered a “History Under Construction” exhibit at Muir Woods in Golden Gate National Park in California. The now-removed 2021 installation annotated an existing sign with “sticky notes” that provided previously-omitted content on Indigenous history, the role of women in the Muir Woods conservation movement, and the historical role of Park Service staff in eugenics movements.
• At Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts, Park Service officials stopped showing two films on labor history, reportedly “to ensure compliance with the Interior Secretary’s order implementing Trump’s executive order.”
• An exhibit about climate change, women’s rights and liberty, and components of the country’s history “we hope never to repeat—like slavery, massacres of Indians, or holding Japanese Americans in wartime camps” at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge at the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York was also reportedly removed in the early rash of changes.
• At Acadia National Park in Maine, Park Service officials reportedly removed signs addressing both history and science. At least one now-removed sign discussed the Wabanaki people and the significance of the Cadillac Mountain—or what the Wabanaki call Wapuwoc—to their culture and heritage. Another removed sign described the effects of climate change on the surrounding environment and the resulting costly damage to the park.

ERASING BLACK HISTORY

The Park Service has flagged for removal interpretive materials describing key moments in the civil rights movement. For example, at the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama, the Park Service has flagged approximately 80 items for removal. The permanent exhibit at Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park in Kansas has been flagged because it mentions “equity.” 

In addition to Independence Park, several sites that tell the stories of enslaved people have been flagged by the Interior Department for removal, including:

• At Fort Pulaski National Park in Georgia, flagged content includes a reproduction of “The Scourged Back,” an 1863 image of Peter Gordon, a man who was enslaved in Louisiana, with scars covering his back. 
• At Harper’s Ferry National Historic Park in West Virginia, where abolitionist John Brown led a raid seeking to arm enslaved people for a revolt in 1859, Park Service officials flagged more than 30 signs. 
• A sign describing a family’s “ownership” of enslaved people was flagged at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in Colorado.
• An exhibit entitled “Freedom Seekers of Timucuan Preserve” at the Kingsley Plantation in the Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve in Florida was flagged for removal. It describes stories of enslaved people who “illustrated the perseverance of the human spirit” as they navigated “sites of bondage and of escape. 
• Information about slavery was flagged at Cane River Creole National Historic Park in Louisiana, including an exhibit about enslaved people who tried to escape but were captured and publicly whipped. 
• Officials at Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia flagged a sign that criticized post-Civil War “Lost Cause” ideology, which denied the central role slavery played in the war.

ERASING SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION 

Signage and exhibits providing scientific information at parks across the country have also been targeted, including a plaque at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee explaining how fossil fuels cause air pollution, and a sign at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina titled “The Air We Breathe” discussing the importance of clean air. Other examples include:

• At Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in Arizona, a sign describing basalt bubbles was recently ordered removed, reportedly because the sign included an image of a visitor holding a Pride flag.
• At Everglades National Park in Florida, the Park Service flagged descriptions of industrialization’s impact on the wetland ecosystem. 
• At Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, descriptions of destructive grazing practices and the accelerating rate of global warming since 1850, as well as a booklet that talks about endangered turtles and Sonoran pronghorn, have also been flagged for removal.  
• At Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the Park Service removed an interpretive display that previously described how the historic island fortress that sparked the beginning of the Civil War may be underwater by the end of the century due to climate change. The display was the product of extensive research by the Park Service and West Carolina University showing the effects of sea level rise, coastal erosion, flooding and storm surge on the park.
• At Glacier National Park in Montana, Park Service officials ordered the removal of interpretive materials describing the concept of climate change and the effect it has had on the park and its role in driving the disappearance of glaciers. 

ERASING INDIGENOUS HISTORY 

Interpretive materials explaining mistreatment of Indigenous peoples have been flagged for removal at parks across the country. These reportedly include a display at Sitka National Historical Park referencing the mistreatment of Alaskan Native peoples by missionaries, a sign at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in Colorado that described the forced removal of a Native Tribe, and an exhibit at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana that described the United States being “hungry for gold and land” and breaking promises to Native Americans. Other examples include:

• At Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in Florida, the Park Service flagged language about the imprisonment of Native Americans inside the Spanish stone fortress. 
• A panel at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Arizona that discussed Ganado Mucho, a Navajo leader known for settling disputes with ranchers, has also been flagged for removal. 
• At Death Valley National Park, which spans California and Nevada, the Timbisha Soshone Tribe requested that a new exhibit be placed with the phrases “these are our homelands” and “we are still here” to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Homeland Act, which transferred nearly 7,800 acres of land to the Tribe. However, this too has reportedly been placed under review pursuant to the Executive Order and Secretary’s Order.
• At Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, the Park Service removed a sign explaining the complicated history of Gustavus Cheyney Doane, a key member of an early Yellowstone expedition who had participated in a massacre of Native Americans.