Activists who pushed for the President’s House Site to center the people Washington enslaved at his Philly home rallied again to preserve history

Activism forced the creation of a memorial on Independence Mall that highlights the contradiction of a young America that exalted freedom while enslaving people. And supporters are hoping activism can now help save it.

The President’s House Site, where Presidents George Washington and John Adams once lived, is one of the locations in Independence National Historical Park that have come under particular scrutiny in connection with an executive order from President Donald Trump.

This spring, Trump directed the secretary of the Department of the Interior to make sure that displays at national parks do not “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

At the President’s House Site, National Park Service staff have flagged for review displays with historical information about slavery and its brutality and that showcase the experiences of people Washington enslaved.

Those displays are the ones that Black activists, led by attorney Michael Coard and his organization, the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, fought from 2002 to 2010 to make sure were central to the memorial.

On Saturday, speakers at a news conference organized by the coalition called for the preservation of the slavery displays in front of a crowd of about 100 people who gathered by the wall that memorializes the names of the nine people Washington enslaved while living in Philadelphia.

Coard said the content about Washington that was flagged for the Trump administration’s review is “historical fact.”

“If you want to talk about George Washington being a great president, you can do that if you want. But can you be a great human being when you hold 316 fellow human beings in brutal bondage under slavery?” Coard said.

He said that after the campaign of the 2000s, organizers “thought the battle was over.”

“But it wasn’t over,” he said. “It was never over.”

» READ MORE: Inside the fight to save more than a dozen Independence Park exhibits from potential Trump admin removal in September

Time may be running out to preserve the site. The New York Times reported that the Trump administration planned to remove “inappropriate” content from national parks by Sept. 17.

In total, more than a dozen displays have been flagged for review in Independence Park, which will be in the national spotlight during the celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday next year.

» READ MORE: More than a dozen slavery displays in Philly, including at Washington’s former home, have been flagged for a Trump admin review

These displays include materials at the Benjamin Franklin Museum, the Second Bank of the United States, Independence Hall, an outdoor exhibit panel on Independence Mall, and a proposed redesigned exhibit.

Philadelphians are working to try to preserve these exhibits.

Lynda Kellam, a data librarian based in Philadelphia, joined with librarians, public historians, and data experts to create a campaign called “Save Our Signs.” Ahead of the potential removal of content from national park sites, the campaign asks visitors to submit photographs in order to build a community photo archive.

Faye Anderson, a preservationist and founding director of PHL Watchdog, wants to assemble a 3D digital recreation of the President’s House Site.

» READ MORE: Josh Shapiro says ‘protecting history’ is crucial as Trump admin weighs removal of exhibits about slavery at Philly national park

Fifteen years after the opening of the President’s House Site, organizers are ready to “pass the torch.” That’s according to Roz McPherson, who was the original project manager for the President’s House Site and helped organize Saturday’s event.

“This is a cross-cultural, intergenerational coalition that we want to build to ensure a positive outcome,” McPherson said, adding that the news conference and rally was the starting point of a “strategic effort to protect this important aspect of American history.”

Liani Roundtree Johnson, an educator, said Saturday that audience members’ schooling may have left out the violence of slavery, and that places such as the President’s House Site help fill gaps in people’s understanding of history.

Mijuel Johnson, a community organizer who leads the Black Journey: African American History Walking Tour of Philadelphia with stops in Society Hill and at Independence Hall, said the President’s House Site’s exhibits being at risk is “personal to me as a Black man” and “personal to me as a human being.”

“I will say this until I die because it has to be said again and again and again for this city, and more so even for this country: Our history is an asset, not a burden, and it must be protected,” he said.

According to Coard, the attorney and leader of ATAC, organizers are building a “broad-based coalition” of people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds to protect these sites.

“A true rainbow coalition where we come together and fight back, where we come together and resist,” Coard said.

The house where Washington and Adams lived in the 1790s was demolished in 1832.

The memorial at Sixth and Market Streets was created using city and federal funds and opened in 2010. It was transferred to the National Park Service five years later.

One of the displays that National Park Service staff commented on is called “Life Under Slavery.” Staff flagged that it “speaks of whipping, depriving of food, clothing, and shelter; as well as beating, torturing, and raping those they enslaved.”

According to an internal form reviewed by The Inquirer, the following displays at the President’s House Site also were flagged:

“Does [Trump] really think that white men did not beat and whip and lynch and torture Black men?” Coard said Saturday. “Didn’t rape and sodomize Black women? Didn’t brutalize Black children? So we’re here to make sure that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is told.”