Citing Orwell’s novel “1984,” a judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate a removed slavery exhibit in Philadelphia

An exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington at his former home in Philadelphia must be restored after President Donald Trump’s administration removed it last month, a federal judge ruled on Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday honoring Washington’s legacy.

The city of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit in January after the National Park Service removed the plaques from Independence National Historical Park, the site where George and Martha Washington lived with nine of their slaves in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.

The removal was in response to Trump’s executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history” at the country’s museums, parks and monuments. The Department of the Interior was directed to ensure that these sites do not display items that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

US District Judge Cynthia Roof ruled on Monday that all of the material must be restored to its original state while a lawsuit challenging the legality of the removal is heard. It has prevented Trump officials from installing alternatives that explain history differently.

Rove, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, began her written order with a quote from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” and compared the Trump administration to a totalitarian regime in the book called The Ministry of Truth, which revised historical records to fit his own account.

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s novel 1984 now exists, whose motto is ‘Ignorance is power,’ this Court is now being asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to conceal and dismantle historical facts when it has some leeway over the historical facts,” Rove wrote. “no.”

She warned Justice Department lawyers during a hearing in January that they were making “dangerous” and “chilling” statements when they said Trump officials could choose which parts of US history to display at National Park Service sites.

People walk past an informational billboard at the site of the president’s home in Philadelphia last year. Photography by Matt Rourke/AP Photo

The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling, which came while government offices were closed for a federal holiday.

The judge did not provide a timeline for when the exhibit must be restored. Federal officials can appeal the ruling.

The historic site is among several where the administration has quietly removed content related to the history of slaves, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and Native Americans.

Signs that have disappeared from Grand Canyon National Park suggest that settlers pushed Native American tribes “off their lands” to create the park and “exploit” the landscape for mining and grazing.

Last week, the rainbow flag was lowered at Stonewall National Monument, as bar patrons rebelled against a police raid and galvanized the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The administration also removed references to trans people from its website about the memorial, despite several trans women of color being key figures in the uprising.

The Philadelphia exhibit, created two decades ago in a partnership between the city and federal officials, included biographical details for each of the nine people the Washingtons enslaved at home, including two who escaped.

Among them was Onie Judge, who was born into slavery on the family plantation in Mount Vernon, Virginia, and later escaped from their home in Philadelphia in 1796. Judge fled north to New Hampshire, a free state, while Washington declared her a fugitive and published proclamations demanding her return.

Because Judge escaped from his Philadelphia home, the National Park Service in 2022 added him to a national network of Underground Railroad sites where the agency pledged to “honor, preserve and advance the history of resistance to slavery through escape and escape.”

Roof said the removal of material related to the judge “hides important information linking the site” to the network.

Only the names of Judge and the other eight slaves — Austin, Parris, Hercules, Richmond, Giles, Moll and Joe, who each had one name, and Christopher Shiels — remained etched into a cement wall after federal agents took a crowbar to the paintings on January 22.

Hercules also escaped in 1797 after being brought to Mount Vernon, where the Washingtons had many other slaves. He arrived in New York City despite being declared a runaway slave and lived under the name Hercules Posey.

Many local politicians and black community leaders celebrated the ruling, which came as many were gathering at the site for restoration.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Democrat from Philadelphia, said the community prevailed against the Trump administration’s attempt to “whitewash our history.”

“Philadelphia fought back, and I couldn’t be prouder of the way we stood together,” he said.