New Lawsuit Filed Over Removal Of Exhibits At National Parks

This week, a judge ruled in favor of plaintiffs who sued the Trump administration, seeking the restoration of an exhibit at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, honoring the enslaved people who were owned by President George Washington, which the administration began removing last month in compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order, the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” act. Now, the administration is facing a new lawsuit over Trump’s order to remove “corrosive ideology” from national parks, because dubbing any historical events or truths “corrosive ideology” just because you think it makes the nation look bad is simply not how truth, sanity, or history works.

According to Politico, the lawsuit was filed Tuesday in a federal court in Boston by the National Parks Conservation Association, which accused the administration of targeting displays related to racism and slavery, sexism, LGBTQ+ rights, Indigenous communities, and climate change.

These allegations aren’t really allegations, of course, as they are far from unfounded. Besides the slavery exhibit in Philly, the administration has directed the National Park Service to remove visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi, and before that, it directed the department to remove exhibits such as the iconic portrait of a runaway slave’s severely whipped back, titled “The Scourged Back,” from several other national parks. NPS also removed a Pride flag from New York City’s Stonewall National Monument. And all of this comes after the administration ordered the removal of exhibits related to slavery, Jim Crow, the women’s suffrage movement, and other non-conservative-friendly exhibits from the Smithsonian.

The lawsuits the administration has faced and is currently facing likely won’t be the last, because MAGA America is so damn dedicated to calling it “indoctrination” whenever anyone is teaching things conservatives don’t want taught, and performing actual indoctrination by removing all teachings that aren’t right-wing-approved.

From Politico:

Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement that the litigation is “taking a stand for the soul of our national parks.”

“Censoring science and erasing America’s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for,” Spears said. “As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”

The lawsuit names the Department of the Interior, Secretary Doug Burgum and Jessica Bowron, who has been acting as the National Park Service’s director. The American Association for State and Local History, Association of National Park Rangers, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Society for Experiential Graphic Design and Union of Concerned Scientists are also named as plaintiffs. The groups are being represented by Democracy Forward, a liberal-leaning nonprofit that has helmed several prominent lawsuits against the Trump administration.

According to NPR, the lawsuit claims NPS has flagged for removal other exhibits related to key moments during the Civil Rights era, such as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama, and the exhibit at Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park in Kansas, which was flagged simply because it includes the word “equity,” the suit claims. According to the filing, some 80 exhibits have been flagged for removal in all.

Of course, the Trump administration is predictably defending its actions by calling the plaintiffs “left-wing extremists” who are part of a “far-left organization,” and claiming these exhibits are only being reviewed for potential “corrosive ideology,” which, again, seems to include whatever the administration says it includes.

More from Politico:

“Democracy Forward is funded and run by far-left extremists who tried, but failed, to elect Hillary Clinton,” a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior said in a statement. “Secretary Order 3431 directed a review of certain interpretive content to ensure parks tell the full and accurate story of American history.”

Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, told POLITICO that a lawsuit challenging Trump’s order is premature.

“This lawsuit, filed by radical left-wing organizations, is based on inaccurate and mischaracterized information,” Rogers said. “The Department of the Interior is engaged in an ongoing review of our nation’s American history exhibits in accordance with the President’s executive order to eliminate corrosive ideology, restore sanity, and reinstate the truth. However, the Department’s actions are not yet finalized, and therefore, these lawsuits are premature.”

Curiously enough, we haven’t heard of any lawsuits or reports about the administration reviewing exhibits related to the Confederacy, the Founding Fathers — save the founders who owned people as property, of course — World War I or II, or any other historical teachings that conservatives are typically in favor of.

The administration is only “engaged in an ongoing review” of teachings that serve as an antithesis of white Christian nationalism.

Go figure.

SEE ALSO:

Harriet Tubman Restored To National Park Service Website

Trump Administration Doesn’t Want Us To Remember That George Washington Enslaved Black People