In January, the City of Philadelphia filed a federal lawsuit after slavery-related exhibits were removed from the President’s House site on Independence Mall—without notice or approval from the city.

Now, a federal judge has halted the Trump administration from rewriting how this site tells the story of slavery, and ordered them to put the removed exhibit panels back where they were, as PBS reports. 

The ruling keeps the government from swapping in softer language as the lawsuit over the sudden changes moves forward.​

The dispute centers on the President’s House site, which is where George and Martha Washington lived with nine enslaved people in the 1790s. 

In January, the National Park Service pulled detailed panels about those individuals’ lives after President Donald Trump signed an order telling federal sites to remove content that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or present.” 

The city then sued, arguing the removals were a political attempt to water down the brutality of slavery at a landmark that millions of visitors pass every year.​

“This is an effort to whitewash American history,” said City Council President Kenyatta Johnson.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe agreed the administration had gone too far, granting a preliminary injunction that blocks officials from installing replacement text that would reinterpret the history of the site. 

In a sharply worded opinion, Rufe referenced George Orwell’s novel “1984,” comparing the administration’s stance to the book’s Ministry of Truth, which rewrites history to fit the ruling party’s narrative. 

"As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984 now existed, with its motto 'Ignorance is Strength,' this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts," Rufe wrote. "It does not."​

The actual exhibit was developed two decades ago with city and federal partners, and includes biographical details about all nine enslaved people, including Oney Judge and Hercules, who both escaped bondage. 

Local leaders and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta celebrated the decision as proof that community pressure can beat back efforts to “whitewash our history.”