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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.

Rev. Carolyn C. Cavaness from Mother Bethel A.M.E. helped inspire rally attendees. The church was founded as a stand against racial discrimination and is the oldest piece of property in the country continuously owned by African Americans. Cavaness said, “Black history is American history, and we won’t be silenced.”

The directive from U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum orders federal agencies, including the National Park Service, to identify and remove interpretive materials that “disproportionately emphasize negative aspects of U.S. history or historical figures, without acknowledging broader context or national progress.”

Community leaders said they believe about six panels throughout Independence Park are up for review or removal. One panel specifically called out is “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” which discusses the slave trade in America, the slave economy and its timeline, according to Flamer.

“We haven’t received any information directly from the National Park Service. On Sept. 11, we sent a letter to the National Park Service regional director and the acting superintendent for Independence National Historical Park requesting a meeting in advance of Sept. 17. We would really like to speak with them as we’re talking with you today to let them know what this means to us here in Philadelphia, how important it is that the entirety of our story of history is told,” she said.

Coard said a coalition is taking action. A steering committee has been formed, led by Rosalyn McPherson, who directed the project when the memorial was created, to guide the direction of a “bottom-up movement.”

He said the committee will include historians, architects, educators and activists of differing ideologies.

“Each will have an equal say. We have some influential movers and shakers who don’t want their names to be disclosed right now, but they are some of the heavyweights in the legal community,” Coard said.

Other community leaders also participated in the rally, calling for action and sharing what the change could mean for all of America. Stephen Pierce, a historic re-enactor, shared the timeline and history of the President’s House, including how George Washington came to live there. He urged the community to support saving the exhibit.

“You should be here with us. If they take this away, they are not going to stop,” he said.

Spoken word artist and historical tour guide Matthew Palmer read two poems, including one from a 1960s Black Panther pamphlet titled “Warning to America.” He added, “I’m not asking you to change your vibration. I’m asking you to be conscious. Because that’s what enacts change.”