Philly residents plan fight to protect Independence Mall slavery exhibit marked for possible removal by White House

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Around 150 community leaders, clergy and activists congregated at Zion Baptist Church in North Philly on Wednesday evening to strategize a defense of the President’s House Memorial, the Independence National Historical Park site that tells the intertwined stories of freedom and slavery at the nation’s founding.

The town hall meeting was called in response to a federal review process triggered by a Trump administration executive order, which directs the Department of the Interior to identify and remove national park exhibits that “disparage” America or its founders.

Roz McPherson, who served as project director when the memorial opened in 2010, called on the audience to fight against the effort.

“This story, and its history is more than just a story, is integral to the acknowledgement of 250 years,” she said. “We think about the fact that tyranny is what caused folks to come to America in the first place. And here we’re having tyranny all over again, but we shall not be deterred.”

The President’s House Memorial stands on the footprint of the nation’s first executive mansion, where George Washington lived between 1790 and 1797 while he was president, having never lived in the capital that was under construction at the time. While in Philadelphia, Washington held at least nine Africans as slaves, including Oney Judge, who famously escaped.

The town hall was organized by the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, which was originally founded in 2002 to campaign for the creation of a prominent memorial to the people held in slavery by Washington in Philadelphia as the President’s House project began to take shape.

Attorney and activist Michael Coard, who was one of the founders, recounted how he learned that Washington held slaves in Philadelphia after the site was found.

“I felt really betrayed,” he said. “I had a great education. I went to Masterman. I went to Cheyney. I went to law school. I was born and raised here in Philadelphia, but never heard about George Washington enslaving Black people.”

Coard, the late historian Charles Blockson and others spent years advocating for a memorial to those nine to be prominent at the location.

The result was a six-panel outdoor exhibit, “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” which opened in 2010 after years of community advocacy. The panels examine the paradox between the fight for freedom against British rule led by those who engaged in slavery during the founding of the nation. It explores the lives of the nine people Washington enslaved while living in Philadelphia in addition to more than 300 others held in his Mt. Vernon home in Virginia.

However, the site is now one of many that the White House is considering to remove or revise.

The White House declined to comment and referred WHYY News to the Department of the Interior, which responded in a statement saying simply that “interpretive signage is under review.”

“Interpretive materials that disproportionately emphasize negative aspects of U.S. history or historical figures, without acknowledging broader context or national progress, can unintentionally distort understanding rather than enrich it,” the statement read.

The National Park Service has until Sept. 17 to provide a review to the White House, which will decide the fate of the exhibit.

The town hall organizers sought proposals about how to counter White House plans. Some of those included letter campaigns directed at NPS, the White House and legislators and looking into legal challenges. Some suggested finding alternative locations, including online.

State Rep. Darisha Parker, who represents parts of North Philly, said that if the exhibit is removed, she would seek funding to relocate it to another site.

“As long as I have an active vote as your vice chair of the elected of the Black caucus, he will not erase anything in Pennsylvania,” she said. “He will not erase anything in Philadelphia. And I’m not going to let that happen.”

McPherson noted that “the President’s House Site was constructed and built by the city of Philadelphia.”

“There was a transfer of that exhibit over to the National Park Service with the intellectual property rights, but again, we need to study those agreements and look at them very closely,” she said.

Michael Lewis, professor of architecture at Williams College and author of “Philadelphia Builds: Essays on Architecture,” said the site’s focus on slavery has overshadowed Washington’s role in shaping the presidency.

“This was the crucible of the formation of the American presidency,” Lewis said. “He could have made himself an emperor as Napoleon did, but he became a civilian ruler… This is a major story that took place in this house, but you wouldn’t know it to go to the house because every display brings up the issue of slavery.”

“It’s where Washington assembled an extraordinary cabinet and helped define the balance of powers, diplomacy, and the role of a national bank — issues still at the heart of American political life. Yet you wouldn’t know it to visit the site, because every achievement is framed almost exclusively through slavery.”

Lewis stressed he is not calling for the removal of slavery from the memorial but for a fuller interpretation.

“It’s a national disgrace that Washington rotated his enslaved workers every six months to avoid Pennsylvania’s gradual abolition law. That story should be told there, but it should be balanced by the achievements of Washington and the making of a civilian ruler,” he said. “This is an archaeological site. There’s a very important building there. This building is the dry run for the White House.”

Philadelphia is slated to play a central role in the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations in 2026, with $85 million committed to Independence Park for infrastructure upgrades. Trump’s original executive order also included language directing the Department of the Interior to allocate “sufficient funding” for “restoring” Independence Park ahead of the celebration.