Black History in Real Time at Philadelphia’s President’s House
Graphic by Habib Salami.
BY RANN MILLER | Pressing Forward
COLUMN
This year, on the one-hundred-year anniversary of Negro History Week, which became Black History Month, the nation, but specifically the Philadelphia metropolitan area, got a chance to witness Black history in real time.
Philadelphia and the nation witnessed Carter Woodson’s vision come to life through the advocacy of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), led by attorney and activist Michael Coard.
I met Mr. Coard over a decade ago at a conference a few friends and I put together at Drexel University.
He was the keynote for us, and he spoke with power, conviction, and sincerity. He shared with those in attendance that day the work of ATAC getting the National Park Service (NPS) and Independence National Historical Park (INHP) to agree to the creation of a prominent Memorial at the President’s House to honor the lives of those enslaved at the house by George and Martha Washington.
He spoke about raising awareness of the history, the fundraising, and the fight. That this memorial existed to speak truth of a president who enslaved and a nation built on the enslavement of African people was a testament to Black memory workers who sought to say their names.
For fifteen years, the memorial stood in honor of African Americans, some of whom escaped their captivity, including Oney (Ona) Judge, who left the President’s House on May 21, 1796, with the help of the city’s African American Community. But an executive order by Donald Trump threatened the memorial’s existence in its current form, and last month the placards were ripped from the walls with crowbars. The exhibit was removed.
But last month, a federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to restore the exhibit.
The victory was a testament to those who advocated that the truth be told, no matter who it offends; that legacy and impact of enslavement must be wrestled with by all of us. Enslavement is not Black history.
It is America’s. But that legacy continues to burden the circumstances Black people contend with. Enslavement morphed into Jim Crow, and Jim Crow morphed into systemic barriers that impact the ability of African Americans to earn an equitable education, obtain fair wages, and live in a neighborhood with one another, free of violence from their neighbor and the state.
We cannot begin to address the remnants of enslavement without acknowledging and wrestling with enslavement. ATAC’s work since 2002 with making the memorial happen is what helps us begin the long work of addressing anti-Black racial injustice. But here is why their work, and the work of Michael Coard, is Black History… because it seeks to correct the lies and inaccuracies told of Black people.
In his most recent book, I’ll Make Me A World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month, Harvard Professor Jarvis Givens explains that Black history is critical history.
He said that it “correct[s] racist distortions that proliferated about Black people in public memory and historical scholarship; to describe the facts, dates, and figures if the Black past in the most compelling and rigorous ways possible; and to leverage this knowledge in the pursuit of racial justice, thus rendering a usable history that can inform action.”
When Mr. Coard created ATAC, along with his stakeholder partners, it was to prevent the inaccurate telling of history at the President’s House. There’s no way to tell the story of the President’s House without telling of the lives that were lived there, and those Black lives mattered.
They still do.
When you read the editorials written by Coard, you recognize he’s engaged in correcting the lies and inaccuracies told about Black people, past and present. This was the mission and work of Carter Woodson. Michael Coard operates in that tradition, and so does ATAC. Their work since 2002—from fundraising money to battles in the courtroom to rallies in the street—is Black history.
Some of us may not have realized that until this moment. Some of us don’t realize Black history that happens in front of us. But the truth is that Black history isn’t simply the works of those done decades ago.
Black history is the work Black people complete now. Writers, educators, historians, and activists are doing Black history through their labors on behalf of Black people. Many would coin “regular people.”
Once upon a time, Angela Davis, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Henry Highland Garnet, and countless others were “regular people.” However, their genius and courage were extraordinary, as they saw a need among Black people and used their genius to address it. Before the man known as David in the Old Testament became a king, he was a teenager with some rocks and a slingshot.
Now is the time to recognize those “regular people” for the extraordinary minds and hearts they are and to encourage them to continue in the work of Black liberation.
Let us be resolved never to forget what Black history and Black History Month are: political actions that tell the story of the Black experience honestly, with the aim of honoring Black humanity, past and present. Doing so presently means fighting against anti-Black racial injustice in the legislature, the courts, and yes, in the streets.
The Trump Administration will likely appeal. So be it. That doesn’t change the Black history in action here. It doesn’t change the mission of Black history. Hopefully, it reminds us there’s more work to do, and that Black lives lived in resistance are living Black history.
BIO: Rann Miller is a writer, author, and educator. A graduate of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Rann teaches AP United States History, is the author of Resistance Stories from Black History for Kids, and is an opinion columnist, featured in various news outlets exploring the intersections of race, education, politics, culture and history. You can follow on “X” @RealRannMiller, on IG, and TikTok @realrannmiller.
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