![\"President's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DSC_0515.jpeg\")
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Visitors peruse exhibits at the President\u2019s House site Tuesday, Sept. 23, in Old City. <\/p>\n
JACK TOMCZUK<\/p>\n
Philadelphia-based organizers are adopting a broad, multi-pronged approach to defending the slavery exhibits at the President\u2019s House, a site within Independence National Historical Park that has been reportedly targeted by President Donald Trump\u2019s administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Activists expected changes to the area to be implemented last week, based on an earlier directive from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who visited the park on Friday. However, the area remained unchanged, as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that nothing happened on September 17 because of pushback,\u201d Michael Coard, of the Avenging The Ancestors Coalition<\/a>, said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say what kind of pushback, but I will tell you there was pushback.\u201d<\/p>\n Coard and other leaders of the newly-formed President\u2019s House\/Slavery Memorial Alliance met with stakeholders during a lunchtime Zoom session to provide an update on the situation.\n<\/p>\n Also an attorney, he suggested the group is \u201cready to pull the trigger\u201d with a lawsuit, if and when the Trump administration removes or alters the President\u2019s House.\n<\/p>\n To that end, Coard encouraged members of the coalition to \u201cdownplay\u201d any suggestion of an alternate home for the exhibits, saying talk about relocation could harm efforts to obtain a federal court injunction.<\/p>\n \u201cThat site is the only President\u2019s House,\u201d Coard added. \u201cSo we don\u2019t want to talk about alternate locations, because that feeds into the argument of the White House that it doesn\u2019t have to be there. But damn it, it does have to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Paradox between slavery and freedom\u2019<\/p>\n On Tuesday morning, tourists perused the informational panels, which sit in front of the entrance to the Liberty Bell Center at 6th and Market streets.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what Trump wants to remove,\u201d a woman told a girl as they reviewed a section entitled \u201cDirty Business of Slavery,\u201d which provided context on the transatlantic slave trade.\n<\/p>\n The President\u2019s House exhibits \u201cexamine the paradox between slavery and freedom,\u201d the National Park Service states on its website<\/a>, with a particular emphasis on the nine enslaved individuals George Washington brought to Philadelphia when he lived in the house as the nation\u2019s first president.<\/p>\n Greg Barnes, 91, of Old City, sat on a stool with a \u201cReady to Resist\u201d sign hanging from his neck. He said he has been demonstrating at the President\u2019s House daily for the last week and plans to continue as long as the weather holds out.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a Quaker. That pretty much explains it,\u201d Barnes told Metro when asked why he was protesting. \u201cI feel I owe it to my Black brothers and sisters.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u2018What we do is critical\u2019<\/p>\n NPS officials said Trump \u201chas directed federal agencies to review interpretive materials to ensure accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cActions as they relate to President\u2019s House in Philadelphia are ongoing, and it would be premature to provide a comment,\u201d said Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the agency, which falls under the U.S. Department of the Interior.<\/p>\n In March, Trump issued an executive order<\/a> that called for the restoration of Independence Hall and directed his administration to remove \u201cdescriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times)\u201d from all national parks. A similar order, issued by Burgum in May,<\/a> provided a timeline for the implementation.<\/p>\n Federal employees have flagged at least 13 display panels at the President\u2019s House, according to NPR<\/a>, and the New York Times reported<\/a> last week that Trump officials \u201cplan to substantially alter\u201d the exhibits.<\/p>\n \u201cJimmy Kimmel and those folks fought and got their show back on,\u201d Rosalyn McPherson, a leader of the President\u2019s House\/Slavery Memorial Alliance, said on Tuesday\u2019s Zoom call. \u201cI like to think that we are doing the same thing here. We are not taking this sitting down.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of the group discussed ways to use activism, political pressure and the law to defend the exhibits. There are also plans to convene faith leaders, academics, archaeologists and others as part of the effort.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s happening in Philadelphia is being watched by other sites around the country, because we are light years ahead in the sense of organizing,\u201d said the Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. \u201cWhat we do is critical, not just for us, but it also lays a strategy and groundwork for other sites who also want to do likewise.\u201d<\/p>\n Coard\u2019s ATAC was formed in 2002 to advocate for the installation of the slavery exhibit when a project was announced to move the Liberty Bell to its current location. Archeologists uncovered sections of the long-demolished home\u2019s foundation \u2013 parts of which remain visible through a glass enclosure \u2013 and the site officially opened 15 years ago.<\/p>\n Around 40 people attended Tuesday\u2019s Zoom meeting, among them former Mayor Jim Kenney, and a second session is scheduled for Wednesday night.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is very, very important to the accuracy of our country\u2019s history,\u201d Kenney said. \u201cI would like to see every elected official lining up because I think part of the problem with this president is that people think you can placate him. You\u2019re never going to placate him. He may leave you alone for a while, but eventually he\u2019s coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visitors peruse exhibits at the President\u2019s House site Tuesday, Sept. 23, in Old City. JACK TOMCZUK Philadelphia-based organizers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":250104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,132551,69,32671,132552,1448,2830,1311,132553,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-250103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-avenging-the-ancestors-coalition","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-independence-national-historical-park","12":"tag-michael-coard","13":"tag-pa","14":"tag-pennsylvania","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-presidents-house","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115256116582784400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DSC_0502.jpeg\")
Greg Barnes, 91, of Old City, demonstrates at the President\u2019s House site Tuesday, Sept. 23.JACK TOMCZUK<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DSC_0462.jpeg\")
Panels pictured Tuesday, Sept. 23, provide information about slavery at the President\u2019s House site.JACK TOMCZUK<\/p>\n