Around 70 people gathered at the site of America’s first “White House,” near the Liberty Bell Center, to protest the federal government’s plans to remove information about the site and President George Washington’s ties to slavery.
The protest was organized to coincide with a visit to the Liberty Bell by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The organizers, Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), pulled together the protest in about 12 hours after becoming aware of the official visit.
Michael Coard, founder and attorney for ATAC, led a nine-minute vigil for the nine enslaved people that Washington brought to the Philadelphia presidential residence, each of whose names are etched into the wall of the memorial. Before the nine minutes, Coard read out each name, asking the crowd to say “Àṣẹ” — a phrase of affirmation from the Yoruba culture — after each one.
Coard’s message for Burgum if they met Friday was simple: “Don’t censor American history.”
“Many people think that we’re talking about ‘Don’t censor Black history,’ but Black history is American history,” he said. “So, if you love America — if you’re a true patriot — you’ve got to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That’s what we want [President Donald Trump] to do.”
Coard shared a letter that was originally sent to Independence National Historical Park Regional Director Steven Sims and acting Superintendent Amnesty Kochanowski on Sept. 11, with the hope of meeting them ahead of a Sept. 17 deadline when the changes to the site were expected to be implemented. They do not appear to have occurred yet.
ATAC leaders had been trying unsuccessfully to get in touch with Burgum, and when they heard he was going to be here, they decided to try and meet him in person.
Burgum was traveling with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to Independence National Historical Park as well as other national park locations. The visit was quiet, with the two visiting the bell pavilion and then heading into Independence Hall for private meetings. There had been no public event as of Friday afternoon.
The former presidential residence added the exhibition “The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” in December 2010. ATAC, founded in 2002, had a key role in that space and history being recognized.
The president’s March executive order, titled “restoring truth and sanity to American history,” ordered the removal from federal monuments, memorials and other similar sites of displays that “contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” It added that those sites should instead showcase “the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.” Signs were placed near such sites directing people to report any parts of historic sites that they felt didn’t align with the executive order’s message.
Speakers before the vigil included City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. and state Rep. Chris Rabb. Rabb told the crowd about his relation to Declaration of Independence signatory Philip Livingston Jr. Livingston’s grandson raped and impregnated a young enslaved girl named Barbara Williams, Rabb’s ancestor who was taken from a plantation in Jamaica and gifted to him by his grandfather.
“It is not a pretty story, but it is not a story that can afford to be whitewashed,” Rabb said, “and we have to tell the ugly truth, because that’s how we learn and do better.”
Stephen Pierce, a local tour guide who attended in period costume, also spoke, saying he was shocked when he first heard of the administration’s plans.
“I heard about book bans across the country. I’ve heard about altering history in certain spaces, but I couldn’t believe they were actually going to mess with Philadelphia, especially the Black history of Philadelphia,” he said.
It is almost impossible to talk about the founding fathers without acknowledging the enslaved people that they owned, Pierce said, and he wouldn’t stop whether the displays were up or not.
“We’ll find other ways to tell these stories,” he said. “This is not going to deter what I do as a tour guide and as a researcher. It’s only going to motivate me more.”
Coard said that the memorial at the President’s House does not inappropriately disparage the nation’s first president.
“It does not do that,” Coard said. “It simply tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It exposes the good, the bad and the ugly.”
Rabb said the administration’s efforts are not only trying to censor history, but to maintain division.
“To have an administration that is so afraid of our own history that it seeks to destroy the things that actually connect us and make us wiser, and stronger, and more connected, is deeply problematic,” Rabb said. “But it also means that [Trump] understands the power of history to bring us together. And that’s why his administration is attacking this, because he knows that if we learn the true history we can be more powerful, we can have more solidarity and confront all the issues and chaos that he’s intentionally seeking to extend across our society.”
