Admin Ordered to Return Slavery Exhibit02/17 06:12

   

   (AP) -- An exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be 
restored at his former home in Philadelphia after President Donald Trump's 
administration took it down last month, a federal judge ruled on Presidents 
Day, the federal holiday honoring Washington's legacy.

   The city of Philadelphia sued in January after the National Park Service 
removed the explanatory panels from Independence National Historical Park, the 
site where George and Martha Washington lived with nine of their slaves in the 
1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation's capital.

   The removal came in response to a Trump executive order "restoring truth and 
sanity to American history" at the nation's museums, parks and landmarks. It 
directed the Interior Department to ensure those sites do not display elements 
that "inappropriately disparage Americans past or living."

   U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled Monday that all materials must be 
restored in their original condition while a lawsuit challenging the removal's 
legality plays out. She prohibited Trump officials from installing replacements 
that explain the history differently.

   Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, began her written 
order with a quote from George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984" and compared the 
Trump administration to the book's totalitarian regime called the Ministry of 
Truth, which revised historical records to align with its own narrative.

   "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."

   She had warned Justice Department lawyers during a January hearing that they 
were making "dangerous" and "horrifying" statements when they said Trump 
officials can choose which parts of U.S. history to display at National Park 
Service sites.

   The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment 
on the ruling, which came while government offices were closed for the federal 
holiday.

   The judge did not provide a timeline for when the exhibit must be restored. 
Federal officials can appeal the ruling.

   The historical site is among several where the administration has quietly 
removed content about the history of enslaved people, LGBTQ+ people and Native 
Americans.

   Signage that has disappeared from Grand Canyon National Park said settlers 
pushed Native American tribes "off their land" for the park to be established 
and "exploited" the landscape for mining and grazing.

   Last week, a rainbow flag was taken down at the Stonewall National Monument, 
where bar patrons rebelled against a police raid and catalyzed the modern 
LGBTQ+ rights movement. The administration has also removed references to 
transgender people from its webpage about the monument, despite several trans 
women of color being key figures in the uprising.

   The Philadelphia exhibit, created two decades ago in a partnership between 
the city and federal officials, included biographical details about each of the 
nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the home, including two who escaped.

   Among them was Oney Judge, who was born into slavery at the family's 
plantation in Mount Vernon, Virginia, and later escaped from their Philadelphia 
house in 1796. Judge fled north to New Hampshire, a free state, while 
Washington had her declared a fugitive and published advertisements seeking her 
return.

   Because Judge had escaped from the Philadelphia house, the National Park 
Service in 2022 added it to a national network of Underground Railroad sites 
where the agency pledged to "honor, preserve and promote the history of 
resistance to enslavement through escape and flight."

   Rufe said the removal of materials about Judge "conceals crucial information 
linking the site" to the network.

   Only the names of Judge and the other eight enslaved people -- Austin, 
Paris, Hercules, Richmond, Giles, Moll and Joe, who each had a single name, and 
Christopher Sheels -- remained engraved in a cement wall after federal 
employees took a crowbar to the plaques on Jan. 22.

   Hercules also escaped in 1797 after he was brought to Mount Vernon, where 
the Washingtons had many other slaves. He reached New York City despite being 
declared a fugitive slave and lived under the name Hercules Posey.

   Several local politicians and Black community leaders celebrated the ruling, 
which came while many were out rallying at the site for its restoration.

   State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Philadelphia Democrat, said the community 
prevailed against an attempt by the Trump administration to "whitewash our 
history."

   "Philadelphians fought back, and I could not be more proud of how we stood 
together," he said.