A federal judge has asked Donald Trump’s administration to restore 34 slavery-related panels at the President’s House in Philadelphia by Friday. An exhibit of the nine people enslaved by George Washington at his former home on Independence Mall was removed by the National Park Service last month following Trump’s executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history.”
The Trump administration defended the move by saying that American monuments or memorials should “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
The judge set a Friday date for the restoration of the exhibits
Senior U.S. District Judge in Philadelphia Cynthia Rufe ordered the restoration of the exhibits Monday, but did not set a time frame. On Wednesday, Rufe, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, set a renewal deadline of Friday, even as the Justice Department appealed her order.
The administration filed an appeal Tuesday with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also based in Philadelphia. It argued that only she could decide what stories would be told on National Park Service properties.
“He has no power to dissect history”
In her order to restore the exhibits, Rufe compared the Trump administration to the totalitarian regime in the dystopian novel “1984,” which revised the historical record to fit its narrative. She said the federal government does not have the power to “overlay and dissect historical truths.”
“If the president’s house remains broken during this dispute, so will the history it tells,” Rufe wrote in the 40-page opinion. “Worse still, the possibility of replacing the exhibits with an alternative scenario – a plausible assumption at this time – would be an even more permanent and irreparable rejection of the historic integrity of the site.”
A day later, an Interior Department spokesman said it was planning an alternative exhibit “providing a more complete account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall.”
Removal of slavery exhibits in Philadelphia
On Jan. 22, the National Park Service removed a series of exhibits commemorating the slaves George Washington kept at the first presidential residence during his tenure in Philadelphia.
Following the removal, the City of Philadelphia sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Park Service and their respective heads, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron.
The city of Philadelphia argued that removing the exhibits without its approval violated the terms of a 2006 agreement between the city and the federal government that made it a partner in maintaining the presidential home.