A federal judge in Massachusetts has ordered the Trump administration to restore sites changed under an executive order calling for the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks to not display elements that ‘inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.’ The preliminary injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, also orders a pause on any additional changes, writing that the plaintiffs have shown that these efforts are meant ‘to rewrite the Nation’s history with a white-out pen.’

Background

The Trump administration must also provide a status report every week describing the progress they’ve made with these changes, the judge wrote. The order comes in response to a February lawsuit filed by conservation and historical organizations over National Park Service policies that the groups say have forced park service staff to remove or censor dozens of exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant U.S. history and scientific knowledge, including about slavery and climate change.

Many of the changes were at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, where the administration removed exhibits on the lives of nine people enslaved at the site in the 1790s under George Washington, the first U.S. president. Other changes included removing a sign at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in Arizona describing basalt bubbles because it had an image of a visitor holding a Pride flag, while films on labor history were removed from the Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts.

Reaction

Alan Spears, senior director for cultural resources for the National Parks Conservation Association, one of the organizations that brought the lawsuit, said the ruling will help protect national parks from the administration’s effort ‘to erase history and science at these one-of-a-kind places.’ ‘National parks belong to the American people and censorship of any kind goes against the values these places represent,’ he said.

Original reporting: NBC10 Boston — read the source article.