Philadelphia has been in the spotlight this month as the nation commemorates the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Of independents in the city that would become the nation’s first capital. Extreme heat caused some events to be canceled and others to be delayed. But crowds of people still visited historic sites like Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell Center and the president’s House around the block’s winter. Schneider reports that social justice groups from Philly and beyond also held events at these sites to call attention to the ugly truths behind some of the nation’s foundational stories, and to call on people to resist the rise of fascism in the United States today.
Winter Schneider On July third, the Trump administration got the green light to replace informational panels at the president’s House on Sixth and Market Street that tell the story of the dehumanizing violence experienced by nine people that George Washington enslaved there centuries ago. The panels were replaced with others that whitewash this history and the early hours of July fifteenth, as reported by the Inquirer, activists, scholars and the city government have shown up on Independence Mall and spoken up online to denounce these changes. If the president’s House has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s nationwide attempt to destroy historical facts that threaten its agenda, then this is due to over two decades of organizing by the avenging the ancestors coalition, or attack, who pushed for the panels to be put up in the first place as a way to do justice to the memory of those enslaved ancestors on July fourth. I went down to the mall where coalition members and allies gathered in one hundred and three degree heat for attacks. Twenty fourth annual Black Independence Day rally.
Unkown Sepaker Before libation to the men and women who fought and resisted enslavement to help free our people, men and women like Nana Harriet Tubman, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner. We say.
Michael Coard You might think, okay, we lost the battle. No we didn’t. We still have options available.
Winter Schneider That’s attack co-founder Michael Kord providing an update on the ongoing litigation of the panels.
Michael Coard The city can file for a reconsideration with that three judge panel. Let’s say that three judge panel rules against us. Again, we can seek what they call an en banc hearing, which means instead of those three, the entire fourteen member panel, there’s a third option. We can petition for what they call certiorari. That means you go up to the Supreme Court. And the final thing, there is a way, theoretically, to file a new and different and more expansive lawsuit that includes more stuff.
Winter Schneider A week earlier. Michael Kord also participated in a public forum on Independence Mall organized by the group Refuse Fascism, that drew a direct connection between erasure of the past and the rise of authoritarianism and fascism in the present.
Michael Coard You might ask yourself, why would this president want to erase the past? Why would any fascist want to erase the past? The answer comes from George Orwell and his response who controls the past, controls the future? Who controls the present, controls the past.
Winter Schneider Each panelist at the forum urgently called on attendees to learn from the historical memory of people and communities who have experienced and who experience injustice at the hands of the nation. Pennsylvania State Representative Chris Raab, who is running for Congress, spoke about the need to confront the violence woven into our political system.
Chris Rabb We cannot embrace liberation until we embrace the truth, no matter how ugly and complex it is. These systems of autocracy. Systems of harm are built into the very fabric of this nation. So whenever I hear people say, this is not America, you are not paying attention. I understand your fear, your frustration. But this is very much America. We have never been more America than right now. There is a genealogy of harm that has led us to this moment, and it’s only because we have not had the moral courage to identify these harms, and to address them substantively is how we got to this point.
Winter Schneider New York based artist Dread Scott says that attempts to rewrite history are attempts to control the way people think.
Dread Scott The battle over culture and history is a central element of fascism. America was founded on genocide and slavery. That’s just a fact. And whether you actually erase that, or whether you foreground that, it’s really important to how you understand the present.
Winter Schneider Michael Cord and Masaru Nakawatase a long time Japanese American civil rights organizer, who himself was born in a US concentration camp in Arizona during World War Two, emphasized a need for solidarity across group lines as our only recourse in this time.
Michael Coard Many people thought that there were guardrails to fascism in America. There are no governmental guardrails. There’s the people. And that’s you. The only way that there’s going to be change is through allies coming together. We don’t have to have the same specific issues, but we do have to understand we have a common enemy.
Masaru Nakawatase When we talk about solidarity come November and beyond. I think we’re going to need one of the broadest national coalitions politically that we’ve ever seen. It has to be absolutely Overwhelmed.
Samantha Rise To see the Liberty Bell. We don’t have time to talk about the Constitution that was written by men. Three quarters of whom owned slaves at the time.
Winter Schneider That morning, the People’s Parade brought that exact message to life by declaring independence from billionaires.
Samantha Rise Choose each other and fight for each other and organize with and for each other, for the world that we deserve. And that’s why we’re here. That’s why we’ve shown up today. It’s hotter than hell, but we’re bringing heaven to Philadelphia because we know what liberation looks like. Show me what liberation looks like.
Winter Schneider The march was organized by a range of groups, including Asian Americans United, Juntos de One Movement, No Ice, Philly New Sanctuary Movement, Philly, DSA, Jewish Voice for peace, and the American Friends Service Committee, only to name a few.
Samantha Rise And when do we want it? If we don’t get it. If we don’t get it.
Winter Schneider The march also featured what is being reported as the largest mobilization of veterans, active duty soldiers and military families in a generation, including the group’s About Face, Veterans Against Fascism, veterans for peace and fifty over fifty one veterans. Brian McGinnis, a marine veteran who is running as a write in candidate for the Second Congressional District of North Carolina, had this to say.
Brian McGinnis I am so against war. Nobody knows what it looks like. And veterans do. Veterans know war. Veterans say no war.
John Amidon I’m John Amidon from Albany, New York. I’m also a Marine Corps veteran. During the Vietnam era, I cannot abide supporting genocide. We are all complicit with our taxpayer dollar.
Samantha Rise From Philly to Palestine, Palestine. All our struggles intertwine.
Rally All our struggles intertwine.
Samantha Rise And from Philly to the Congo. Get ready.
Rally From Philly to the Congo.
Samantha Rise Got to go.
Rally Billionaires have got to go got to go.
Winter Schneider Collective liberation requires reckoning with our history and fighting just as hard for our future. And I am proud to have witnessed so many people who made that message reverberate within the historic sites of the nation’s founding on the fort.
Samantha Rise And no racist ass police Come on. No justice, no peace. No racist ass police
Winter Schneider As we work to find justice for the historical and ongoing wrongs inflicted by this nation, the future that we want two hundred and fifty years from now depends on our presence in the fight for its existence today.
Samantha Rise Say no more rich man’s war
Rally No more rich. man’s war
Samantha Rise Not at home. Not abroad.
Winter Schneider A huge shout out to Samantha Rice on the mic and all the musicians we’ve been listening to this whole time.
Samantha Rise Not at home, not abroad.
Winter Schneider For the people. I’m winter Schneider.
Samantha Rise Not at home. Not abroad. Not at home. Not abroad.
This story was broadcast as part of the July 19, 2026 episode of Around the Block.
Note: This transcript was machine-generated and may contain some spelling errors or other inaccuracies.