USA Federal Judge Orders Park Svc to Reinstall Slavery Exhibit

[Webster]

(The Guardian) A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Monday ordered the National Park Service to reinstall a slavery exhibit at a Philadelphia historic site, pending the outcome of litigation after the city sued the federal government over its removal.

The National Park Service last month dismantled and removed a long-established slavery-related exhibit at the Independence National Historical park, which holds the former residence of George Washington, in response to Donald Trump’s claims, which have been rejected by civil rights groups, of “anti-American ideology” at historical and cultural institutions.

The city of Philadelphia sued over the matter, accusing the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, and top officials of breaking the law and asking a judge to restore the exhibit.

On Monday, a federal judge in Pennsylvania, Cynthia Rufe, granted the city’s request to temporarily block the federal government’s changes and ordered the National Park Service to restore the exhibit pending the outcome of litigation.

Rufe, who was appointed by George W Bush, began her ruling with a quote from a section of George Orwell’s 1984 which described the process by which the authoritarian party in the novel conducted a constant rewriting of past editions of newspapers – as well as “books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs” – to erase any uncomfortable facts from history.
-Read more: US judge orders Trump administration to restore Philadelphia slavery exhibit

 

[Lamb]

Was Philadelphia one of those cities that wanted historical statues removed a few years ago? I can't remember.

 

[NewCreation435]

Was Philadelphia one of those cities that wanted historical statues removed a few years ago? I can't remember.

I think you are thinking of Richmond, Virginia.

 

[Lamb]

I think you are thinking of Richmond, Virginia.

Richmond was probably another one...

Philadelphia removed the statue of a former mayor in 2020 during that wave of other cities removing statues.

 

[Webster]

@Lamb, @NewCreation435 >>> I think, as Creation pointed out, it was the row of Confederate statues on Richmond's Monument Avenue that were taken down; the one in Philly was that of former mayor Frank Rizzo, who was as much of a bigot as the worst Southern segregationists ever were.

There's a broader problem though with what Trump was trying to do in Philly however, as pointed out in the Guardian blurb and that's the continued 'whitewashing' (no pun intended) of American history to fit certain "conservatively correct" narratives rather than telling history in all of its' facets - the good and the bad and the ugly of it all.