A federal judge has ruled that an exhibit about people enslaved by George Washington, the first president of the United States, must be temporarily restored at Washington’s former home in Philadelphia.
In her decision on Monday, US District Judge Cynthia Rufe said that all materials must be restored in their original condition while a lawsuit challenging the legality of the removal is underway.
The city of Philadelphia had sued after the National Park Service removed explanatory panels and a video installation from Independence National Historical Park in January. The exhibit, which opened in 2010, paid tribute to the nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the home.
In her ruling made Presidents Day, the federal holiday honouring Washington’s legacy, the judge also prohibited the Trump administration from installing replacements that explain the site’s history differently.
Judge cites 1984
The park service took down the exhibit after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March 2025 ‘restoring truth and sanity to American history’ at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks.
Since returning to office, Trump has taken aim at educational and historical curricula and exhibits that talk about race relations in the United States and cast the country’s history in a negative light.
In Monday’s decision, Rufe wrote that ‘the government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts’.
She cited British novelist George Orwell’s defining work about a dystopian, authoritarian state in his book 1984 in her judgment.
“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength’, this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims – to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote.
‘It does not.’
Trump targets history of slavery
The site in Philadelphia is among several where the administration has quietly removed content about the history of enslaved people, LGBTQ+ people and Native Americans.
Earlier this month, the National Parks Service removed a rainbow flag from the Stonewall National Monument, where bar patrons rebelled against a police raid and catalysed the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Although days later, New York City officials raised the rainbow flag again at the site.
Trump officials also ordered the changing of signage at Little Bighorn National Monument in the state of Montana.
The signage describes ‘broken promises to Native American tribes’ and refers to ‘the loss of Indigenous culture and language under boarding school systems’, according to local broadcaster KTQV.
DW
