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Historians, community leaders, activists and Philadelphians gathered Saturday at The President’s House, located at 6th and Market streets, to oppose potential changes to the historic site’s exhibit on slavery during George Washington’s presidency.
Attorneys Michael Coard and Michelle Flamer, representing the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition and the President’s House Steering Committee, led the program and gave updates on actions to preserve the memorial.
“In May, the Interior Department secretary, appointed by the president, targeted this site with a Sept. 17 deadline, so this coming Wednesday, this place could be shut down,” Coard said. “But we have a strategic activist strategy, a strategic political strategy and a strategic legal strategy.”
Organizers described the rally as the kickoff of a public campaign to defend the site’s exhibit, officially titled President’s House: “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation.” The outdoor memorial opened in 2010 after years of community advocacy and archaeological research confirming that Washington enslaved nine people at the site. Many of the leaders and attendees at the rally played a leading role in the movement for its creation. The exhibit includes interpretive panels and multimedia displays highlighting the lives of those individuals, including Ona Judge, referred to in the exhibit as Oney, who escaped to freedom.