A federal judge in Philadelphia on Wednesday set a Friday deadline for the Trump administration to restore a slavery exhibit that had been removed from Independence Mall, where visitors learn about George Washington’s former home. The deadline came as the Justice Department appealed an order that had already required the exhibit’s reinstatement while a lawsuit moves forward.
The dispute centers on materials about nine people enslaved by Washington, part of the historical presentation at the site managed through the National Park Service. According to the judge’s order, park service workers removed the exhibits last month, prompting the city of Philadelphia and other supporters to sue.
Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe issued the new deadline Wednesday, even though the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, which is based in Philadelphia. Rufe, an appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush, issued an injunction Monday that required the materials be restored while the lawsuit proceeds.
In the broader injunction, Rufe ordered restoration of the exhibit and barred Trump officials from creating new interpretations of the site’s history. In her 40-page opinion, Rufe said the federal government does not have the authority “to dissemble and disassemble historical truths,” and she compared the Trump administration’s approach to the dystopian novel “1984,” which revises historical records to align with its narrative.
Rufe’s opinion also warned that leaving the site’s “President’s House” display altered during the dispute would undermine what the exhibits recounted, writing that the history would be “dismembered throughout” the legal process. She further cautioned that replacing the exhibits with an alternative “script” would be even more permanent, according to the opinion.
After Rufe’s injunction, an Interior Department spokesperson said the department had planned an alternative display that would provide what the spokesperson described as a fuller account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall. The Wednesday deadline thus requires the administration to reinstate the removed materials while its appeal proceeds, even as it maintains that it plans different interpretive materials.
The historical site is among several where the administration has removed content about enslaved people and also about LGBTQ+ people and Native Americans, according to the report. With millions of visitors expected to come to Philadelphia this year for the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 1776, the court’s timeline is set to shape what tourists see while the case moves through the appellate process.