Judge orders reversal of Trump decision to remove George Washington slavery exhibit
The exhibit's removal was a direct consequence of a Trump executive order
A federal judge has mandated the immediate restoration of an exhibit detailing the lives of nine enslaved people owned by George Washington, following its controversial removal by the Trump administration. The ruling, delivered on President's Day, requires the display to be reinstated at Washington's former Philadelphia residence.
The city of Philadelphia initiated legal action in January after the National Park Service dismantled the explanatory panels at Independence National Historical Park. This site served as home to George and Martha Washington, along with nine of their enslaved individuals, during the 1790s when Philadelphia briefly held the status of the nation’s capital.
The exhibit's removal was a direct consequence of a Trump executive order aimed at "restoring truth and sanity to American history" across national museums, parks, and landmarks. This directive instructed the Interior Department to ensure such sites avoid displaying elements that "inappropriately disparage Americans past or living."
U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled on Monday that all original materials must be restored while the lawsuit challenging the removal's legality proceeds. She explicitly prohibited officials from the Trump administration from installing any replacement exhibits that offer a different historical interpretation.
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 park service in 2022 supported the site's inclusion in a national network of Underground Railroad sites where they would teach about abolitionists and escaped slaves. Rufe noted that materials about Judge were among those removed, which she said “conceals crucial information linking the site to the Network to Freedom.”
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 park service 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.
Bookmark popover
Removed from bookmarks