Preserving the Story of Slavery at the President’s House by Other Means

This past January, the National Park Service removed some of the 34 exhibit panels from the walls of the President’s House that, since 2010, had told the story of the nine enslaved persons kept there by George and Martha Washington. The City of Philadelphia sought a preliminary injunction to prevent the further removal of the panels. The Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) also organized a series of street demonstrations protesting removal of the panels. A federal district court judge enjoined the federal government from removing the panels and ordered their restoration. When the federal government appealed, an appellate court panel held that the federal government had the legal right to replace the original panels with different panels that sanitized the portrayal of slavery at the site.

That court ruled that the federal government owned the site, which included the right to determine which historical interpretations are presented there and how. After the ruling, the district court judge dismissed all but the City’s contract claim, which is unlikely to result in the restoration of the panels because the City previously transferred ownership of the panels to the federal government. The lawsuit is effectively ended, which paves the way for the immediate installation of the new panels.

When the panels were removed in January, a multiracial, nonpartisan, multifaith group of Philadelphians formed The Ona Judge Coalition (TOJC) with the goal of employing alternative means of preserving the story of slavery at the site and elsewhere through a series of initiatives: public dialogue, education, visibility, and civic memory. While TOJC supported the litigation and the street demonstrations, we recognized that throughout our history in America, Black people never relied solely on such tactics to tell our historical truth. We used pamphlets, books, newspapers, schools, churches, museums, and radio to ensure that the sordid history of slavery and its vestiges not be erased, sanitized or minimized.

TOJC was named in honor of the 22 year-old enslaved woman who served as Martha Washington’s seamstress and handmaiden at the President’s House. When Judge heard that Martha Washington was planning to “give” her to a niece upon her return to Virginia, on May 21, 1796, she escaped and traveled to Portsmouth, New Hampshire where she lived as a free woman until her death in 1848. George Washington spent several years and thousands of dollars trying to recapture her. Her escape and life as a free woman is powerfully chronicled by historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar in Never Caught The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge. The book reminds us that our freedom has always required vigilance, resistance, historical truth and remembrance. The story of Judge’s courage is timeless, universal, and not dependent on panels at a physical location.

Since January, TOJC has coordinated public programs, educational partnerships, and acts of civic remembrance. On May 21, we celebrated Ona Judge Day with Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar, coalition leaders, and elected officials. The event coincided with the National Trust for Historic Preservation naming the President’s House site among the nation’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

TOJC and the African American Museum in Philadelphia developed “Who Is Ona Judge?”, a three-screen immersive video exhibition which is on display until Labor Day. We also launched WhoIsOnaJudge.org as an educational platform to share Judge’s story and connect the public to related programs and resources.

TOJC’s public programming has extended beyond the museum setting. During “Red, White, & Blue To-Do”, we partnered with AAMP to present a found poetry workshop, open mic, and drumline performance in the historic district. Through a partnership with The Black Journey, TOJC supported Ona Judge’s Philadelphia Walking Tour, a guided exploration of Judge’s escape and the contradictions of liberty in Revolutionary-era Philadelphia.

Education remains central to the coalition’s work. With grant funding, TOJC is working with the School District of Philadelphia, the Free Library of Philadelphia, private and parochial schools, and Girard College to distribute several thousand copies of Never Caught to high school students and to organize a fall Teen Author event with Dr. Dunbar.

TOJC has planned two additional major projects for 2027. The first is a community mural at AAMP honoring Ona Judge. The second is The Mapping of Ona Judge, an original concert suite by Ruth Naomi Floyd that blends storytelling, period instrumentation, and Judge’s first-person accounts.

To achieve its goals, TOJC partnered with a diversity of organizations: The African American Museum in Philadelphia, Independence Visitor Center, The Free Library of Philadelphia, The School District of Philadelphia, Girard College, the Urban Affairs Coalition, Belmont Mansion, the Global Citizen, Black Journey Philadelphia, Historic Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Citizen, and President’s House Memorial Alliance.

Carl E. Singley is a founding member of The Ona Judge Coalition

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