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GW's House in Philadelphia ... Use of minority labor on restoration project demanded

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (7-3-09)

When supporters of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition converge on the site of the future President's House memorial at 4 p.m. today, they will be seeking to redeem the unpaid labor of enslaved forebears by ensuring paid labor in the here and now.

"It would be the height of historical hypocrisy that this would be built without the paid contributions of the sons and daughters of those who were enslaved here and built here in the first place," said Michael Coard, a founder of the coalition.

On July 3 every year since 2002, the coalition has rallied in support of a President's House memorial at Sixth and Market Streets, the spot where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and worked during the 1790s and where Washington held at least nine enslaved Africans.

Now, with the $8.5 million construction project roughly a month from breaking ground, according to planners, the question of minority participation has become a key concern for community activists.

"We will raise hell if they don't get the work," said Sacaree Rhodes, an activist and member of Generations Unlimited, a group concerned with the President's House and other sites related to the African American experience. Rhodes has focused on minority participation in the project since virtually the beginning of planning more than six years ago.

Posted on Friday, July 3, 2009 at 4:04 PM | Comments (0) | Return

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