Federal judge says Trump can’t ‘erase’ history, orders slavery exhibit restored
A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Monday ordered the Trump administration to restore displays discussing slavery at a site in Philadelphia where George Washington lived as president.
In a 40-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania compared the displays’ removal last month to the government mind-control employed in George Orwell’s famous novel “1984.”
“The government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control. Its claims in this regard echo Big Brother’s domain in Orwell’s 1984,” Rufe wrote.
Rufe’s ruling — issued on Presidents’ Day — granted an immediate injunction, requiring the reinstallation of 34 educational panels removed last month by the National Park Service from a site at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.
The materials, which include video, are part of the exhibit at the President’s House Site, the location of the residence where Washington lived for most of his presidency and where President John Adams lived until the White House was ready in 1800. Some of the material tells of Oney Judge, a woman enslaved by Washington who escaped to freedom and built a life in New Hampshire.
The removal was connected to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14253 — “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” — which calls for eliminating “divisive narratives” from national sites. Many museums and historic locations have responded by removing exhibits that discuss slavery and the challenges overcome by minorities and marginalized groups.
Appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush, Rufe criticized the Trump administration as asserting that “truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegees, at his whim to be scraped clean, hidden, or overwritten. And why? Solely because, as Defendants state, it has the power.” [Continue reading…]