Join the fight for full restoration of the President’s House Slavery Memorial

Judge is a central figure in the President’s House Slavery Memorial, which now stands on the site where George Washington lived during his presidency (1790-1797), at 6th and Market Streets. The displays include eight more enslaved Black people Washington brought from his Virginia plantation, Mt. Vernon, to Philadelphia to work in his Market Street mansion.

After six years in Philadelphia and faced with the prospect of returning to Mt. Vernon and remaining enslaved, Ona, who dressed First Lady Martha Washington, sewed for her, and accompanied her on social calls, had had enough. On the night of May 21, 1796, the slender, freckled, fair-skinned girl slipped away. “I had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia,” Judge told a journalist in an 1845 interview. “I had my things carried there beforehand, and left Washington’s house while they were eating dinner.”

A president’s fury

Washington was furious. “He was embarrassed,” says Raina Yancey, founder and CEO of The Black Journey: African-American Walking Tour of Philadelphia. “Ona was young, poor and illiterate, yet she eluded the most powerful man in the country,” Yancey says. (Judge learned to read and write after her escape.)

Ona’s escape cost the president not only prestige, but cash. She belonged to the estate of Martha Washington’s first husband, so Washington, if he failed to catch her, had to reimburse the estate.
And fail he did, despite an initial exhaustive search in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area where Judge was living. As Erica Armstrong Dunbar explains in her 2018 book about Judge, Washington’s second effort, which included a plan to kidnap and re-enslave her, also fell through.

In other words, Judge, members of Philadelphia’s free Black community, and a white ship’s captain out-foxed President Washington.

Philly fights back

Judge’s successful flight around the time of the nation’s founding—underscoring the paradox of freedom and slavery in that era and the power of interracial resistance—may seem especially galling and dangerous to President Trump and his cabinet. He may also have wanted to prevent tourists celebrating America’s 250th anniversary in Philly from being reminded of slavery and those who fought it.

On January 22, 2026, under orders from the Trump administration, National Park Service staff pried the 34 panels comprising “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of the Nation” off the walls of the President’s House site. That very day, Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration filed a federal lawsuit against the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Department of the Interior, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and NPS Acting Director Jessica Bowron. The suit seeks to restore the exhibition.

The Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), founded in 2002 to compel NPS and Independence National Historical Park to create a slavery memorial at the President’s House, also acted quickly, launching a public campaign within days to fight the removal (the group’s petition has garnered more than 8,300 signatures).

Legal limbo continues

On Monday, February 16, 2026, Judge Cynthia M. Rufe, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ordered the Trump administration to immediately restore the panels. Later, she set a deadline of 5pm on Friday, February 20, 2026.

Judge Rufe’s 40-page opinion emphasized the “loss of access to historical truth,” noting that “each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history.”

A January 24 statement from the Organization of American Historians makes the same point, condemning the removal and similar federal actions, which “distort the historical record and impose through executive orders and actions a narrow vision of the American past.” Dismantling the Philly exhibit “undermines historical integrity, public trust, and the long-standing interpretative mission of the National Park Service at one of its most important and visited historical sites.”

On the morning of February 19, some of the signage was restored. A few hours later, advocates celebrated Rufe’s ruling with a rally at the site, featuring remarks from attorney and ATAC founder Michael Coard. But the Trump/Vance administration quickly appealed, and on January 20, U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman issued an order halting the reinstallation of the exhibition until the Court of Appeals rules on the dispute. The 16 panels already restored, half the exhibition, must remain for now, but there is no requirement yet to restore the rest.

Black history is everywhere

Meanwhile, we must fight back. Coard has organized protests since the exhibition’s dismantling in January. You can find updates on actions via the Philadelphia President’s House/Slavery Memorial Coalition on Instagram (@preshousecoalition). Philadelphians can stand up for the city’s Black history by joining and supporting ATAC. We can also protect Black history by teaching our children about it early. If you’re uncertain about children’s books that present Black history well, start with the list of books recommended by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Lawana Holland-Moore, director of grantee impact and engagement for the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, says that money is the top challenge for historic sites. Black historical sites like the Marian Anderson Museum, the Colored Girls Museum, and others need our support. “Visit them and buy something in the gift shop, even if it’s a $3 magnet,” Holland-Moore says.

The city has honored some Black citizens of the past in public spaces. The subway station at 5th and Market has a silhouette of Ona Judge. More city-owned spaces could host such memorials.

“Whenever you visit a historic site [anywhere], ask about its Black history, even if none is apparent,” says The Black Journey’s Yancey. “You may be surprised. We’ve been everywhere.”

Demanding the full story

City Councilmember Rue Landau denounced the removal of the exhibition on slavery and suggested ways to fight for the city’s Black history. “Let museum leadership know that you support exhibits on Black history,” Landau says. She also urged Philadelphians to contact their representatives at the city, state, and federal levels about honoring Black history.

“The federal government should not only pay for any damage to the panels and for reinstalling them,” Landau says. “It should also pay for a new panel that tells about the wrongful dismantling of the exhibition and the city’s lawsuit. We have a responsibility to tell the truth.”