On Friday (June 12), a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore exhibits related to topics such as climate change, slavery and Indigenous and LGBTQ+ history that were removed under an executive order to purge language at national parks that allegedly cast America “in a negative light.”
The ruling accused the Trump administration of engaging in censorship by taking down materials at parks across the country.
Per the NY Times, the judge, Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, also ordered the Park Service to restore within three weeks any exhibits that it had dismantled or altered.
The ruling offers reprieve for the plaintiffs, a coalition of conservation and historical groups, who pushed back on the executive order in February. The lawsuit included the National Parks Conservation Assn., American Assn. for State and Local History, Assn. of National Park Rangers and Union of Concerned Scientists.
Judge Kelly argued that the administration’s actions amounted to presenting a selective version of history. “Under the guise of promoting American dignity, this Administration seeks to share a limited history by ordering the removal of all signs, displays, and interpretive exhibits at National Parks that do not align with its preferred narrative, thereby telling half-truths.”
What was removed
The executive order by President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum forced park service staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant U.S. history and scientific knowledge, including about slavery and climate change.
The removals extended nationwide with officials flagging 80 items at Alabama’s Selma trail and exhibits on voting rights, Indigenous history and LGBTQ+ rights at multiple parks.
Park service officials were ordered to remove:
- Explanatory panels from Independence National Historical Park, the site where George and Martha Washington lived with nine of their slaves in the 1790s.
- The permanent exhibit at Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park in Kansas because it mentions “equity”
- A Pride flag was removed at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City
- Signage at the Grand Canyon National Park that said settlers pushed Native American tribes “off their land” for the park to be established and “exploited” the landscape for mining and grazing.
- A sign about climate change at Fort Sumter in South Carolina
- The famous 1863 photograph of “The Scourged Back”
Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, the parent agency of the Park Service, suggested that the administration would appeal the ruling.
“This ruling is from a liberal activist judge,” Ms. Martin said in an email. “The department will look at our appeal options while we celebrate U.F.C. Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House this weekend in honor of our nation’s 250th with the greatest president in the history of our country — President Donald J. Trump.”