Judge orders Trump administration to restore park signs on slavery, climate change

The fight over who gets to define American history in public spaces returned to federal court Friday, when a Boston judge ordered the Trump administration to restore park signs and exhibits on slavery, climate change and Native American history. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley gave the Interior Department 21 days to reinstall material that visitors had already stopped seeing at parks and monuments across the country.

Kelley said the administration’s actions created a “dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization.” The ruling blocked a campaign that had reached National Park Service sites from Louisiana to South Carolina, including slavery exhibits at Cane River Creole National Historical Park, sea-level-rise material at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and Native American history exhibits at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.

The case was filed in Boston by a coalition led by the National Parks Conservation Association and joined by the American Association for State and Local History, the Association of National Park Rangers, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design and the Union of Concerned Scientists. The plaintiffs said the Interior Department had been stripping signs and exhibits in violation of federal laws governing park operations, including the National Park Service Organic Act, the National Park Service Centennial Act and the National Parks Omnibus Management Act.

The dispute traces back to a March 2025 executive order from Donald Trump aimed at what he called a “revisionist movement” portraying the United States as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum followed with Secretarial Order 3431 on May 20, 2025, setting off an internal review at the National Park Service. By July, park staff were being asked to inventory interpretive materials under a deadline of July 18, with possible removals flagged at sites including Cane River Creole, Cape Hatteras and Castillo de San Marcos.

The removals reached some of the country’s best-known landmarks. Reported examples included an exhibit at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia that described George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people, signage on climate threats at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and additional interpretive material on climate change and Native American history at Glacier National Park and Grand Canyon National Park.

Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, called the lawsuit “a stand for the soul of our national parks” and said Americans deserve parks that tell the country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. Democracy Forward said the ruling would help protect parks from an “unprecedented campaign to erase history and science.”

The Interior Department denounced Kelley as a “liberal activist judge” and said it was reviewing appeal options. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers called the lawsuit premature and said the department was working to tell the “full and accurate story” of American history. The National Parks Conservation Association said more than two-thirds of the nation’s 433 national park sites are dedicated to history and culture, making the restored signs central to how millions of visitors understand the country’s past.