August 01, 2025
Joseph E.B. Elliott/National Parks System
A rally is planned at 4:30 p.m. Saturday where supporters will defend the exhibit commemorating enslaved people at Independence National Park's President's House Site amid the Trump administration threats to remove it. The photo shows a portion of the exhibit, a wall with the names of he nine enslaved people who Washington brought to Philadelphia during his presidency.
People who were instrumental in the creation of the exhibit memorializing enslaved people at President's House Site at Independence Historical Park will lead a rally Saturday afternoon amid threats to the display by the Trump administration.
The exhibit, titled "The President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation," examines the contradictory nature of the Founding Fathers advocating for freedom and liberty while owning enslaved people. It includes stories from the perspective of the enslaved people who worked at the house.
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The building had been occupied by George Washington and John Adams during their presidencies while Philadelphia temporarily served as the U.S. capital. A wall in the exhibit is carved with the names of nine people who had been enslaved by George Washington and brought to the city from Mount Vernon. Adams did not have enslaved people among his household.
In March, President Donald Trump ordered the National Parks System to remove or cover up displays that "inappropriately disparage Americans," according to internal documents reported on by the New York Times on July 22. Then on May 20, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum followed with instructions that initiated a review of "all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers ... to identify whether any such properties contain images, descriptions, depictions, messages, narratives or other information (content) that inappropriately disparages Americans past or living ..."
The Inquirer reported on Tuesday that the review has resulted in the flagging of signs and other educational displays at the Benjamin Franklin Museum, Second Bank, Independence Hall, Independence Mall and President's House Site, which is near Sixth and Market streets.
Michael Coard, a leader of the effort to create the exhibit at the President's House Site, and other Black leaders from the city organized Saturday's demonstration, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., to show that people oppose the Trump administration's changes.
"America's prominence today exists only – and I do mean only – because of America's enslavement of Black people yesterday," Coard said in a press release on Thursday. "And the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about America's real history must be told, especially at this preeminently historic site."
Momentum to create the "Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation" as a part of the President's House Site exhibit started with an article written by Ed Lawler, the Independence Hall Association's historian, who in 2002 wrote an article for the Pennsylvania Historical Society's journal that included details about the enslaved people who lived at the President's House. From there, Coard championed the project as leader of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition along with the late Charles Blockson, another historian.
The exhibit was created after a decade of activism from people who thought the narrative of slavery was missing from the Old City historic sites. Ground was broken at the site 2007 and it opened in 2010 as a collaboration between the city and the National Park Service.
The changes to historical markers and exhibits come less than a year before the semiquincentennial in 2026, which marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia will be a focal point of that celebration and the organizers of Saturday's demonstration said the history of enslaved people will be an important part of the festivities.
