Workers have begun restoring the slavery exhibit at the President’s House Site on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, a day after a judge set a Friday deadline for the Trump administration to do so.
The administration on Wednesday night asked U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe for a stay on the injunction while its appeal is pending in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Rufe on Monday ordered that the panels be restored while a lawsuit over the removal proceeds. Rufe, a President George W. Bush appointee, compared the administration’s rationale for removing the exhibit to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s “1984” — a dystopian novel about authoritarianism.
The panels, removed in January by the National Park Service, depict the lives of nine people enslaved by George Washington while he lived in Philadelphia as president.
The city of Philadelphia promptly sued the Interior Department and the Park Service over the removal.
Bill Rooney, a Chestnut Hill resident, was passing by when he saw the restoration underway.
“It feels like history being made again,” he said. “To have that history taken down is a step back. It wasn’t right.”
Amid occasional applause from passersby, as workers restored the panels, an unnamed Park Service employee said, “It’s our honor.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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