ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A new display in the Lehigh County Government Center stands as a true celebration of the history of Black residents in the region.
And as a rebuke to President Donald Trump’s efforts to erase “the more unseemly or unpleasant parts of our history,” according to the county's new leader.
"There wouldn’t be a Lehigh County history — there wouldn’t be an American history — without Black history.”Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel
County Executive Josh Siegel, who took office at the beginning of the year, said he pushed for the Black History Month exhibit’s installation to “show folks we are proud of it, and that there wouldn’t be a Lehigh County history — there wouldn’t be an American history — without Black history.”
The exhibit, curated by the Lehigh County Historical Society, showcases prominent moments and local Black leaders, dating back generations, in education, employment and the Civil Rights movement.
And it highlights the history of several Black churches in Allentown.
But it also includes the stories of Allentown founder William Allen and his son, James, listing them as a slave merchant and slave holder, respectively.
The display lines one wall of the building’s ground-floor lobby, welcoming all who enter the county’s headquarters for the rest of February for Black History Month.
'We can move forward'
Trump last month ordered the National Park Service to take down an exhibit in Philadelphia memorializing enslaved people who lived in President George Washington’s home in the 1700s, when the city was the nation’s capital.
That exhibit “told the story of … the duality of freedom, liberty and slavery,” Siegel said.
“It was a presence and an eternal reminder that the birthplace of liberty in our country went hand in hand with human bondage,” he said.
“The strength of our nation is that we can confront our past, that we can reckon with it, we can reconcile it, and that we can move forward."Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel
Its removal fueled the impetus to “unapologetically display and demonstrate our region's contribution to African American history” and show that local leaders understand that "strength lies in confronting our past, not concealing it,” the county executive said.
“The strength of our nation is that we can confront our past, that we can reckon with it, we can reconcile it, and that we can move forward,” he said.
“America is not a perfect country. We're not a perfect nation. We've made mistakes.”
Siegel on Tuesday lamented a prevailing “school of thought that says we should hide from it, we should erase it, we should pretend it didn't happen, to tell some sort of sanitized version of how America became America.”
“To teach Black history to our children — honestly and unapologetically — is to inoculate against that zero-sum mindset that says, ‘In the land of abundance, there is not enough to go around,’” Seigel said.
A federal judge this week ordered the federal government to reinstall the exhibit removed in Philadelphia.
Siegel said he hopes officials “immediately restore” it and other recently removed exhibits that honored women’s suffrage and Native American rights.
“I hope they comply — because we've seen this administration time and time again defy court orders,” he said.
