Ruling: U.S. Must Reinstate Reminders of Slavery for Now

The government’s actions aim to “rewrite the nation’s history with a red pen,” wrote a federal judge from Boston. Her preliminary injunction is directed at the National Park Service, which is also responsible for public monuments. A final ruling on the matter is still pending.

U.S. President Donald Trump had instructed his Department of the Interior in March of last year to review all memorials, plaques, statues, and similar items to determine whether they cast the history of the United States in a negative light. The name of the executive order: “Restoring Truth and Reason in American History.”

Trump cited as the reason an alleged widespread attempt to rewrite the country’s history as racist and oppressive. Where this occurs, he argued, exhibits, monuments, or inscriptions must be altered or removed.

U.S. government must reinstall plaques within three weeks

As a result, commemorative plaques addressing slavery disappeared nationwide—including at George Washington’s former home in Philadelphia. The responsible authority removed plaques there that provided information about people enslaved by the former U.S. president. Following a lawsuit filed by the city, the plaques were reinstalled. References to climate change—which Trump does not view as a threat—were also removed in many places.

As U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley of Boston has now stated, the U.S. must tell the full history of its country, especially on the 250th anniversary of its independence. This involves undisputed facts that the U.S. government is attempting to downplay. The lawsuit was filed by a number of organizations in the fields of history, conservation, and science.

The judge ordered that all monuments removed under the executive order be reinstalled. Changes must be reversed. The judge gave the government 21 days to do so—that is, until a few days before Independence Day on July 4.