President’s House panels swapped under cover of darkness

Philadelphia — Around 5 a.m. on July 15, Attorney Michael Coard and other members of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) learned that the panels making up the President’s House and enslavement exhibit near the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia were being pulled down behind tarps under federal guard.

They discovered that the exhibit had been completely replaced with new panels that whitewash and distort the facts that the original panels presented, regarding the horrors of enslavement. All the explanatory video presentation screens were disabled. Also for the first time, surveillance cameras were installed around the exhibit.

This raid is not the first by the federal government on the exhibit. A prior removal of panels is part of the litigation.

ATAC called an emergency noon press conference the same day at the site with about 30 ATAC supporters and many local press outlets in attendance. Coard called the new revised panels “a complete whitewashing of U.S. history.”

For the first time that this writer has witnessed, federal officials appeared to try to prevent the press conference at the site. After discussion with Coard (and perhaps because a bank of press cameras was assembled), the feds allowed the press conference to continue.

The Trump administration had long targeted the President’s House and slavery exhibit for its honest depiction of slavery and the roles of nine enslaved workers at the very first White House. Litigation between the city of Philadelphia and amicus groups, of which ATAC is one, and the federal government is ongoing.

ATAC remains determined to present the truth at the site where it happened. They promise to continue the struggle in the courts and on the street.