Trump Suppresses the Truth
Junious Ricardo Stanton
On Thursday January 22, 2026 at 3 PM Eastern time, Donald J. Trump executed his March 2025 executive order number 14253 with the mind-bending Orwellian designation Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, ordering US Park Service employees to dismantle the slavery exhibit located at Sixth and Market Streets. The site is an historically designated location maintained by the US National Parks Service. It was where George Washington resided during his terms as the first president of the United States.
George Washington was a surveyor, a wealthy planter, land speculator, soldier and enslaver of hundreds of persons of African descent who also served as the first president of the fledgling United States of America. Washington served in that position from April 30, 1789 until March 4, 1797.
When Washington migrated from his plantation in Virginia to Philadelphia be brought nine enslaved persons whom he kept during his presidency and residency in Philadelphia. The nine were: Austin who died while enslaved, Giles Washington?s driver, Christopher Sheets Washington? personal attendant, Hercules Washington?s cook, Moll the nursemaid to Martha Washington?s grandchildren, Ona Judge was Martha Washington personal maid, Paris the stable hand, Joe, and Richmond who was the son of Hercules.
These were real people Washington ?owned? and kept in servitude. Washington cunningly circumvented Pennsylvania laws that mandated an enslaved person be automatically feed if they resided in Pennsylvania for six consecutive months, by taking the nine back to his Virginia plantation or ferrying them across the Delaware River to New Jersey for a few days so the six months timeline could restart!
It took a well-coordinated campaign by historians like Charles Blockson and Professor Shirley Parham, activists like Michael Coard, Reggie Bryant, elected officials such as Mayor John Street, Congressman Bob Brady, organized labor representatives, a host of scholars, artists, architects, visual media professionals like Louis Messiah and hundreds of grass roots organizers who called themselves ATAC, Avenging The Ancestors Coalition to bring this to the attention of the US National Parks Service.
As a result of their demonstrations, letters and meetings, the US National Park Service agreed to formally acknowledge the role the site played as a bastion of slavery. ATAC collaborated with the US Parks Service to design and create the content of the exhibit.
The exhibit recently celebrated its fifteenth anniversary as the nation?s first and only memorial dedicated to the nine enslaved persons kept by George Washington in the Robert Morris Mansion in Philadelphia while he served as the nation?s first president.
As they planned for their fifteenth anniversary celebration, The President?s House Slavery Memorial Alliance a broad-based multi-ethnic coalition spearheaded by Rosalyn McPherson and Michael Coard were acutely aware of Trump?s 2025 Executive Order. When it was issued, they immediately began strategizing and planning potential legal actions in anticipation of Trump executing his order.
Trump set a September 17, 2025 deadline for a review, inventory and evaluation of all sites he deemed disparaging or which according to him portrayed America ?in a bad light?. On Thursday January 22, the administration actualized his plan to suppress the truth.
The City of Philadelphia immediately filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior and the US National Parks Service and The President?s House Slavery Memorial Alliance mobilized their resources to redress Trump?s arbitrary attempts to distort US history. Trump?s goal is to obfuscate and obliviate the fact the nation?s economic engine was driven by the brutal enslavement of human beings, that many of the nation?s founders and movers and shakers profited handsomely off of the uncompensated labor of hundreds of thousands of people, Black and White (indentured servants and bonds persons) who were kept in brutal servitude.
During a virtual Town Hall meeting held the next day, Rosalyn McPherson expressed confidence their legal team would win and the exhibit would be restored. ?We don?t know where the panels are. We?ve contacted the Parks Service but all they will say is they are in a secure location. They belong at Sixth and Market. Our legal team is working on this, we will win and the exhibit will be restored.? McPherson stated.
To join the campaign to restore the President?s House Slavery Exhibit and stop Trump from erasing America?s history go to: Presidentshouse@therozgroup.com or ATAC@Avengingtheancestors.com
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Posted By: Junious Stanton
Thursday, January 29th 2026 at 12:38PM
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