The Man at the Forefront of the Battle Over Philly’s Slavery Memorial Tells All

Q&A

On Monday, Philadelphia attorney and civil rights activist Michael Coard was granted access to the secret location where the federal government has stowed away “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation”. That’s the acclaimed, outdoor exhibit that the feds stripped away on January 22nd, without warning or public discussion, from the grounds of the President’s House and Liberty Bell Center on Independence Mall, a site visited by millions each year in search of the American origin story. The removal of the exhibit was swift, quiet, and, to many Philadelphians, an outrageous erasure in the very place that markets itself as freedom’s birthplace.

The exhibit stood on the footprint of the nation’s first White House, where George Washington lived while Philadelphia served as the temporary capital — and where nine enslaved men and women were forced to work in the shadow of freedom’s most powerful symbol. For more than two decades, Coard, co-founder of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, has been at the center of the fight to make that history visible. He helped lead the effort to create what became the first slavery memorial on federal land in U.S. history.

In this conversation, Coard walks through how the exhibit came to be, why its removal matters far beyond Philadelphia, what he saw when he was finally allowed to view the removed exhibit pieces in storage — and why he believes this fight will ultimately be won not just in courtrooms but in the streets.

Michael, before we get started, I imagine there are a lot of people reading about the exhibit removal who weren’t previously familiar with it. What’s the backstory?
Back in 2002, a newspaper article indicated that the Liberty Bell Center, which was then at 5th and Market, would be moved one block west to 6th and Market, because the original location was too cramped, too crowded, and too congested. When they decided on the new space, they realized that, hey, this is where America’s first White House once stood, back in 1790.

So the White House in Washington D.C., was not the first?
No. The first one was here pursuant to the Federal Resident Act of 1790, which basically said, hey, we want to build the capital in Washington, D.C., but right now it’s swampland. We have to pave it over and get everything together. In the meantime, we’ll make Philadelphia our temporary capital and have a house for the president at 6th and High Street [which later was renamed Market Street]. The home was one of the most majestic houses in the city.

And what we learned as this project moved along was that George Washington held slaves at this house, correct?
That’s right. I knew he enslaved hundreds of Black men, women, and children at Mount Vernon [his Virginia plantation], but we knew nothing about the nine slaves held here in Philadelphia. I went on WHAT-AM radio and spoke about it. The radio’s audience, who at the time were primarily African American, were as livid as I was to learn this. In response, along with others I formed the broad-based Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. Our goal was to spread the word about these nine slaves and create a memorial for them. We drafted letters and sent them to each elected African American official in Philly. If you were a City Councilmember, you got a letter. If you were a state senator, you got a letter. Mayor. Congress. We also included Bob Brady, despite him being white, because he was a very influential congressman. I should say that we later learned that some officials from the National Park Service did find out about the slaves, in the mid-’70s. But they kept it quiet, because it would have been “embarrassing” to the government. You know, slavery in the shadow of the Liberty Bell.

Tourists inspect “The Dirty Business of Slavery” at the President’s House / Photograph by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images

What was the response to your letter campaign?
Well, Mayor John Street got back to us quickly. He said he knew nothing about the slaves at the President’s House and was going to officially jumpstart this idea of making a slavery memorial there. He kicked in $1.5 million, and we were on the map. Later, Congressman Bob Brady and Congressman Chaka Fattah kicked in $3.5 million. And all of this was to develop a slavery memorial on that space, which would be the first slavery memorial of its kind on federal property in the history of the United States of America. It opened on December 15, 2010.

Take us to the present. What exactly happened on January 22nd?
At about 3 p.m., like a thief in the afternoon, vandals assigned by the White House came and stripped down all the interpretive panels. They stripped the monument of its essence. Picture what a giant, magnificent house looks like with lots of luxury furniture in it — and then what it looks like if you remove the furniture. All you have is this shell. Some people say they “peeled” the displays off of the walls. I say that they pried them and put them in storage at the National Constitution Center.

This isn’t just a matter of destruction. This is not just a matter of defiling. This is desecration in the true sense of the word.”

My understanding is that you were able to view them this past Monday along with a handful of other viewers, including the federal judge presiding over the city’s lawsuit against the Trump administration regarding the removal.
Yes. We were allowed to do that, but under the agreement that we could not disclose exactly where the panels are being stored inside the center. But I can say this: While they are on the grounds of the Constitution Center, the particular grounds where they are located are not actually owned by the Constitution Center. I can say that.

I’m imagining them in some kind of temperature-controlled archival room, like a piece of art in storage at a museum.
That’s what I expected, too. But, no. Imagine taking the Liberty Bell and throwing it into some guy’s garage. What they basically did was throw these 34 pieces into Uncle Sam’s garage. They certainly haven’t been destroyed, and I cannot say that they were damaged, but they are in a large garage-type structure. No carpeted floors. Not wrapped in bubble wrap. Cement walls. Cement floors. Disgraceful. This isn’t just a matter of destruction. This is not just a matter of defiling. This is desecration in the true sense of the word.

In its lawsuit against the federal government, the city is arguing that the National Park Service violated an agreement NPS had with the city over how the memorial would be managed and over its very future. That agreement held that the NPS couldn’t just do whatever it wanted with the memorial. But the government seems to be claiming that the agreement no longer applies.
The agreement in question says that the NPS can’t just up and do whatever it wants with the exhibit without collaborating and discussing it with the city. The government owns the exhibit, but not with king-like dictatorial powers. While the case moves through court, the judge has ordered the federal government to make sure the pieces are properly taken care of and not damaged in any way. Meanwhile, the government came up with this ridiculously technical reason that they claim the agreement has expired [city officials are challenging the federal government’s understanding of that agreement] and anytime you are relying on a ridiculously technical argument, it means you have bullshit.

Let’s say the city wins its case. Do the panels go right back up?
No. If the city wins, the government will take the decision to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and if it loses there, it would go to the United States Supreme Court.

Is there any kind of potential compromise on this? Or is the only resolution that you and your group will accept the return of the panels to their proper place?
We don’t just demand that the site be restored, we want the site enhanced. More space. More information. And then? Then we want to replicate these all over the country. So in a word, Victor, no, there is nothing we will agree to as a compromise. Based on the public outrage — the public will, the public agitation and the public resistance — we are going to mount such an irresistibly powerful campaign that the federal government will be forced to return the items. People power will reach a resolution. We’ve always had a two-pronged approach based on the lessons learned from the Civil Rights struggle. You need people raising hell in the streets and lawyers raising issues in the courtroom.

What can the average Philadelphian who is horrified by this do to help?
I’m gonna quote this famous philosopher-slash-poet-slash-godfather of hip-hop, the great Gil Scott-Heron. He said, just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything. It can be as little as going to the Avenging the Ancestor Coalition’s social media pages and clicking “Like.” Sign our petition. Become a member. Join one of our action teams, like our phone bank or email teams. Join us in the front lines protesting and demonstrating. Fill up the courtroom during hearings. Do whatever you can do. Fight.

To learn more about the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition and upcoming actions to fight the slavery memorial’s removal, visit their Facebook page.