Slavery exhibit returns to Philadelphia’s Independence Mall after Trump administration ordered its elimination

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Workers on Thursday began restoring an exhibit on the lives of the nine people once enslaved at the former President’s House in Philadelphia amid a contentious legal fight between the city and the Trump administration.

Mayor Cherelle Parker visited the site Thursday morning and thanked the workers for their efforts, spokesperson Joe Grace said.

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A federal judge had set a Friday deadline for the Interior Department to restore the exhibit on the people enslaved by George Washington at the site on Independence Mall. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the restoration work, a spokesperson said.

The administration argues that it alone can decide what stories are told at National Park Service properties. Park service workers last month abruptly removed exhibits from the Philadelphia site, prompting the city and other supporters of the exhibit to sue.

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Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe on Monday granted an injunction ordering that the materials be restored while the lawsuit proceeds and barring Trump officials from creating new interpretations of the site’s history.

A slavery exhibit reinstalled by workers from the National Park Service at a historic site in Philadelphia, following a U.S. judge order to reinstall it, on Feb. 19, 2026. Photo by Hannah Beier/ Reuters

In her 40-page opinion, Rufe compared President Donald Trump’s administration to the totalitarian regime in the dystopian novel “1984,” which revised historical records to align with its narrative. She said the federal government does not have the power “to dissemble and disassemble historical truths.”

“If the President’s House is left dismembered throughout this dispute, so too is the history it recounts,” Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, wrote.

“Worse yet, the potential of having the exhibits replaced by an alternative script — a plausible assumption at this time — would be an even more permanent rejection of the site’s historical integrity, and irreparable,” she wrote.