Judge orders restoration of national park plaques removed under Trump directive | US news
A US district court judge has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate history or science materials it removed from the nation’s public monuments. find He said the White House’s actions “set a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization.”
Donald Trump in March 2025 signed An executive order titled “Restoring truth and sanity to American history” that calls on the Secretary of the Interior to examine monuments, memorials, and statues to see if they were altered after January 2020 to represent a “false construction of American history.”
2020 was a year marked by national protests for racial justice. The emerging public reckoning over race and equality led to the removal of statues commemorating Confederate leaders.
The Trump directive comes as the White House wages war on so-called liberal “wokeism” by rolling back Biden-era diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices and policies (the president has in the past described DEI as divisive and particularly divisive). discriminatory against white people).
The Trump administration has also sought to purge “predatory” or “ideological brainwashing” from exhibits at the nation’s historical and cultural institutions.
The 2025 executive order resulted in the removal of signs and materials from these sites that touched on topics such as slavery, civil rights, indigenous history and climate change, according to a report. February A lawsuit filed by a group of conservation organizations against the Trump administration.
At The Scourged Back, a monument in Georgia, the famous photo of an enslaved man with scars protruding from his back made headlines because he was potentially flagged for removal.
Plaintiffs included the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), the National Park Rangers Association, and the American Association for State and Local History.
Massachusetts district judge Angel Kelley also sided with their complaint.
“Under the guise of promoting American pride, this administration seeks to share a limited history by ordering the removal of all signs, exhibits, and explanatory displays in national parks that do not fit its preferred narrative, thereby telling half-truths,” Kelley wrote in his decision. he wrote.
said Alan Spears, NPCA’s cultural resources officer. in question The statement made after the decision said: “Americans rely on national parks to help us fully understand our rich history. Stories of triumph and tragedy deserve to be told loudly in the parks.”
Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, one of the plaintiffs, echoed that sentiment. National parks “exist to preserve and interpret the entire American story, not just the parts that appease some politicians. This decision will help ensure that remains the case,” he said in a speech. expression.
The Trump administration has 21 days to comply with the order.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
