A national lawsuit
The National Parks Conservation Association and several other organizations filed another lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts seeking to block the Trump administration from removing or altering historical sites across the country.
The suit argues that federal law requires the government to operate national parks and historic sites “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” but argues officials have “betrayed that trust by mounting a sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science.”
The plaintiffs point to the Trump administration’s efforts to “whitewash” sites that memorialize the country’s history of slavery — including the President’s House Site — the Civil Rights Movement and sacred Indigenous grounds, but also attacks exhibits that discuss climate change, Japanese internments and women’s rights.
Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association, quoted Rufe’s decision that the government’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious.”
“This appears to be an assault on critical thinking that anything, whether we’re talking about national parks, other federal agencies, books and trinkets in gift shops, anything that might make someone think critically about the history of this country,” he said. “And critical thinking, I think, is the highest form of patriotism.”
The association and its co-plaintiffs — which include 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 asking the court to order restoration of the sites in question.
“What we want is for this lawsuit to, at first, halt and then hopefully reverse this punitive, unnecessary and unAmerican exercise that this administration is leading to censor history in our national parks,” Spears said.
