Slavery Exhibits Will Return to Washington's Home

Visitors to George Washington's former Philadelphia home will once again be told the nation's first president kept slaves there, the New York Times reports. A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore exhibits on Washington's enslaved household at the President's House Site, finding the federal government had overstepped when it removed them from the monument without warning last month. In a 40-page opinion, Judge Cynthia M. Rufe granted Philadelphia's request for a preliminary injunction and likened the administration's stance to the "Ministry of Truth" in George Orwell's 1984, writing that the government cannot "dissemble and disassemble historical truths" at will.

The National Park Service had said it pulled the panels, displays, and video presentations to ensure "accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values." Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee, countered that visitors who are not told about "founding-era slavery" at the site receive a distorted picture of US history. Her order, which the AP notes came on the Washington-honoring Presidents Day holiday, blocks further changes at the monument and keeps the slavery exhibits in place while the lawsuit continues. It comes amid broader efforts by the Trump administration to revise interpretive material at federal sites, including the removal of climate-change signs at parks and a Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument.