Visitors at the President's House in Philadelphia look at a display about what life was like for enslaved people at the residence used by George Washington while he was President.
Michael Coard stands next to a stone display with the names of enslaved people kept by George Washington while he lived in Philadelphia.
A display outside the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia explains what slavery was like in 18th century America. The exhibit is part explainer and part memorial to enslaved people who worked for George Washington while he lived in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital.
Carol Low (left) and Sharon Morton visited Philadelphia from Maryland and saw the historical sites around Independence Hall. Among them: The President's House, which memorializes the enslaved people who lived and worked at the home where George Washington lived.

PHILADELPHIA — Michael Coard is a criminal defense lawyer, and he peppers his thoughts about The President's House with a familiar courtroom phrase.

"We need to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," he said more than once while discussing the displays at The President's House, steps away from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia's historic district.

The truth on display at The President's House is that George Washington, the general who led the fight for U.S. independence, a Founding Father and the first President, owned human beings, profited off their unpaid labor, and, when one of them made a break for freedom, tried for years to recapture them. And while he was living in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital, Washington kept enslaved people at the house where he resided.

Meanwhile, other displays that tell the stories of enslaved people have come under scrutiny by the Trump Administration as part of its review of monuments, memorials and museum displays that it says may "inappropriately disparage Americans." Trump and some conservatives believe historical sites and museums focus too much on painful elements of the United States' past, including slavery, displacement and killings of Native Americans, racism and discrimination. The President has said that focus provides "a false reconstruction of American history," and that federally funded sites should instead promote patriotism and the idea of American exceptionalism.

For now, all of the displays at The President's House remain in place, with no imminent plans to remove or alter them, Coard said. But he and a group of activists, preservationists and others, aware of controversies at sites including the Smithsonian and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, are still making backup plans, he told USA TODAY.

In an email response to USA TODAY's inquiry about the site, NPS said it was complying with Trump's “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” order. The statement did not provide details about how the order could impact The President's House.

Philadelphia-area residents Sheldon and Brenda Rich, came to tour The President's House on Sept. 18 because they wanted to take in the exhibits in case they are removed or altered. "I think the present administration is doing its best to create a revisionist version of history around slavery," Sheldon Rich said.

Coard, who helped lead the effort decades ago to recognize the site as the former home of enslaved people, is part of a grassroots coalition of people in and around Philadelphia who are working to ensure that The President's House, which is part of Independence National Park, is not changed, altered, eliminated or censored.

"It will not be lost," he vowed.

The President's House: the paradox of freedom and slavery

Coard, sitting outside The President's House on a warm September afternoon, recounted how he'd never known about the site or the people enslaved there, where both Washington and John Adams (who'd never owned slaves) lived while holding the nation's highest office — despite attending one of the city's most prestigious high schools and a nearby HBCU, Cheyney University.

The site, at the busy intersection of 6th and Market streets, was forgotten for decades, covered over as the city grew. In 2002, Ed Lawler, a historian with the Independence Hall Association, published a paper about the site and, as the National Park Service prepared to move the Liberty Bell into a new pavilion near it, archaeologists began to unearth evidence of the house. Meanwhile, Coard and a group of activists formed the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), lobbying the city and the National Park Service for a memorial to the people who were enslaved there — one that finally became reality in 2010.

"Slavery was in America's first White House," Coard said. "If you want to call (Washington) a great general, do that. If you want to call him a great President, do that. No one would object to that. But this is history, and he cycled slaves in and out of Philadelphia (to skirt Pennsylvania's 1780 Gradual Abolition of Slavery Act)." That, say Coard and what he described as a "rainbow coalition" of activists, is a reality that must be acknowledged as part of Washington's legacy as much as his accomplishments and leadership.

The site includes the stories of people like Oney Judge, a seamstress who was born at Mount Vernon and who escaped from slavery while in Philadelphia, and was for years considered a fugitive by Washington, who tried multiple times to get her back; and Hercules Posey, a chef who was well-known in both Virginia and Philadelphia and who also escaped slavery, and was eventually granted manumission by both George and Martha Washington. Reenactors recount what life was like for enslaved people in video presentations; displays teach visitors about the business of slavery, how enslaved people gained their freedom (or didn't), and different forms of paid and unpaid labor in Colonial-era America.

The President's House, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall were all bustling on the day Coard met with USA TODAY, with tourists and locals stopping by. Many people supported the presentation of sobering facts about the first president.

"It's important to have conversations about the men who said 'All men are created equal' and still owned slaves," said Jon McCann, a YouTube content creator who makes videos at Philadelphia historic sites.

Hunter Dean, a Louisiana native and Texas resident visiting with family, described himself as "very patriotic," wearing a shirt that read, "I defend the First Amendment with the Second Amendment."

"History is everything," he said. "Without learning history, there's no future."

What's next for The President's House and its displays about slavery?

For now, the exhibits at The President's House remain in place. Still, Coard is remaining vigilant, and ATAC has planned protests, strategy sessions and awareness campaigns. He credits public support for the exhibits.

Should the exhibit ever face scrutiny or calls for change, Coard said the ATAC has a plan that includes real estate lawyers, preservationists, architects and activists. The plan includes legal injunctions and pressuring political leaders, both locally and nationally.

"You cannot be a patriotic American if you don't really know America," he said. "And to love America, you have to know the good, the bad and the ugly."

Contact Phaedra Trethan by email at ptrethan@usatoday.com, on X @wordsbyphaedra, on BlueSky @byphaedra, or on Threads @by_phaedra

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Activists vow to protect display on George Washington's ties to slavery

Reporting by Phaedra Trethan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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