Judge Orders Reinstatement of 52 Removed Exhibits at Federal Sites by July 4 While Halting Further Removals

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley ordered the Department of the Interior to reinstate 52 removed exhibits at more than 30 federal sites beginning the week of June 22 and to complete the work before July 4. The order also bars further removals and requires replacement of materials already taken down.

Kelley wrote that history cannot be faithfully told while excluding the experiences of communities whose contributions, struggles, and achievements form an important part of the nation's story. The removed items include information at Glacier National Park on carbon dioxide emissions and temperature increases, and roughly 80 artifacts from the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail.

President Trump signed an executive order directing removal of exhibits from federal land to restore truth and sanity to American history.

The order states that Americans have witnessed a concerted effort to rewrite the nation's history by replacing objective facts with ideology. On June 19, former National Park Service employees held a teach-in at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia to present material from exhibits that were canceled.

Former exhibit planner Elizabeth Kerwin, 58, had spent years building a wall of remembrance listing hundreds of enslaved people with ties to the site.

The planned exhibit building remains empty with its door locked and windows boarded up, marked only by a green sign reading African-American History. Former park workers formed the group Resistance Rangers and the coalition America 433+, named for the 433 sites in the National Park System. The Resistance Rangers printed copies of banned pamphlets and distributed them to visitors.