Multiple conservation and historical organizations have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the removal of exhibits about slavery, civil rights, and climate science from national parks. The legal action comes after a federal judge ordered the restoration of exhibits about enslaved people at George Washington's former Philadelphia residence.
WASHINGTON — Multiple conservation and historical organizations filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging National Park Service policies they claim are eliminating historical facts and scientific information from America’s national parks.
The Boston-filed legal action alleges that directives from President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have compelled park officials to eliminate or modify displays containing accurate historical information and scientific data, particularly regarding slavery and climate change.
These exhibit modifications followed a Trump executive directive aimed at “restoring truth and sanity to American history” throughout the nation’s museums, parks and historic sites. The order instructed the Interior Department to prevent these locations from featuring content that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
According to the plaintiff organizations, this review initiative has intensified recently, resulting in the elimination of multiple displays covering slavery history, civil rights, Indigenous peoples’ treatment, climate science, and other “core elements of the American experience.”
The legal challenge involves a coalition including the National Parks Conservation Association, American Association for State and Local History, Association of National Park Rangers and Union of Concerned Scientists. This lawsuit follows Monday’s federal court ruling requiring restoration of an exhibit about nine individuals enslaved by George Washington at his former Philadelphia residence.
Park officials eliminated informational displays last month from Independence National Historical Park, where George and Martha Washington resided with nine enslaved people during the 1790s when Philadelphia served as the temporary national capital. The judge mandated exhibit restoration by Presidents Day, the federal holiday celebrating Washington’s legacy.
Beyond the Philadelphia situation, park officials have identified civil rights movement interpretive materials for elimination, according to the organizations. At Alabama’s Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, approximately 80 items face removal.
Officials have targeted the permanent display at Kansas’s Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park for mentioning “equity,” the lawsuit states. A Pride flag was eliminated from New York City’s Stonewall National Monument. Missing signage from Grand Canyon National Park previously described how settlers forced Native American tribes “off their land” for park establishment and “exploited” the terrain for mining and grazing.
“Censoring science and erasing America’s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for,” stated Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the parks conservation association.
“National parks serve as living classrooms for our country, where science and history come to life for visitors,” Spears continued. “As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”
The Interior Department did not provide immediate comment.
U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered Monday that all Philadelphia exhibit materials must return to their original state while legal proceedings continue regarding the removal’s legitimacy. She barred Trump officials from installing alternative displays explaining the history differently.
Rufe, appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, opened her written decision with a quote from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” and drew comparisons between the Trump administration and the book’s authoritarian Ministry of Truth, which altered historical records to match its preferred narrative.