Cultural Heritage, Cultural Heritage Preservation

Women’s History Month: Melba Liston

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I will close out Women’s History Month with jazz pioneer Melba Liston (1926-1999). Liston holds the distinction of being the first woman to be regularly featured as a player, composer, and arranger with a major jazz band.

From the National Endowment for the Arts:

Although a formidable trombone player, Melba Liston was primarily known for her arrangements, especially working with Randy Weston, and compositions. Growing up mostly in Los Angeles, some of her first work came during the 1940s with two West Coast masters: bandleader Gerald Wilson and tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon. In Gordon’s small combos, she began to blossom as a trombone soloist, and Gordon wrote a song as a tribute to her, “Mischievous Lady.” Despite her obvious talent as a soloist, Liston became an in-demand big band section player, which likely fueled her later work as an arranger. During the 1940s, Liston also worked with the Count Basie band and with Billie Holiday.

Following a brief hiatus from music, she joined Dizzy Gillespie’s bebop big band in 1950, and again for two of Gillespie’s State Department tours in 1956 and 1957, which included her arrangements of “Annie’s Dance” and “Stella by Starlight” in performances. She started her own all-woman quintet in 1958, working in New York and Bermuda, before joining Quincy Jones’ band in 1959 to play the musical Free and Easy. She stayed in Jones’ touring band as one of two-woman members until 1961.

In 1959, Liston arranged and conducted Gloria Lynne’s album, Lonely and Sentimental.

During the late 1960s and ‘70s, Liston worked as a staff arranger at Motown Records. In this role, she was responsible for arranging and conducting for several artists, including Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Billy Eckstine.

In the 1980s, Liston taught at the University of the West Indies and was director of Popular Music Studies at the Jamaica Institute of Music. A stroke in 1985 ended her playing career. She was able to resume work as a composer and arranger in the 1990s through the aid of computer technology.

Liston was named an NEA Jazz Master in 1987.

Melba Liston was recently celebrated at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.

Advocacy, Hercules Posey, The President's House

Erasing History from National Parks

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This weekend, I led a teach-in at the President’s House Site organized by the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides.

There was a steady stream of visitors to the site. Most were aware that the National Park Service removed the interpretive signs and were ordered to reinstall them. However, they were surprised the President’s House Site has not been restored to its physical status as of January 21, 2026 as ordered by U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe.

The Department of the Interior appealed Judge Rufe’s order to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Full restoration of the site was paused by Judge Thomas M. Hardiman. As the lawsuit, City of Philadelphia v. Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior, et al., moves through the federal courts, the President’s House Site will remain partially restored.

On the two-month anniversary of the removal of the interpretive panels, CBS Sunday Morning aired a report, “Signs of the times: Removing stories of America’s past from our national parks.”

Jim Axelrod interviewed Alan Spears, Senior Director for Cultural Resources at the National Parks Conservation Association.

Spears has a clear message for those who cannot handle the truth about the “nuanced nature of our history”:

If you are thinking about visiting a national park, if you don’t want to tackle any of these large issues that make you think critically about race and slavery, and gender and other things like that, there are hundreds of thousands of places in the United States where you can go. Knock yourself out at Six Flags but don’t ruin it for the rest of us who have come to rely on national parks as places for that learning.

We want to maintain their ability, unimpaired, to be able to talk about the full scope of our history – wonder, warts and all.

President Trump wants to erase the fact-based history told at the President’s House Site. Removal of the interpretive panels is a “sign o’ the times.”

Advocacy

Let the Sun Shine In

This is Sunshine Week, a time to celebrate transparency, and the public’s right to know what government officials are doing and saying behind closed doors.

It is serendipitous that I will be at City Hall in Courtroom 275 during Sunshine Week.

For more than two years, the City of Philadelphia has fought release of records related to the Philadelphia 76ers’ now abandoned proposal to build an arena atop SEPTA’s Jefferson Station. Perhaps the City thought I would give up. But giving up is not in my DNA. And an awesome team of lawyers, led by Paula Knudsen Burke of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Temple University Law Professor Mary E. Levy, has my back.

The City appealed the Office of Open Records’ final determination to turn over responsive records to the Court of Common Pleas Philadelphia County on June 27, 2025. Judge Christopher Hall will hear oral arguments on March 18, 2026.

While 76 Place is as dead as the 76ers’ chances of winning an NBA championship, the public has the right to know how unaccountable and self-serving billionaires hijacked city planning. The latest Market East fiasco shows that the City has learned nothing from the arena debacle.

It is imperative that public officials are held accountable. Transparency must undergird future development projects. So, let the sun shine in.

Advocacy, Hercules Posey, The President's House, Walking Tour

Women’s History Month: Hannah Archer Till

The fight to save the President’s House has brought renewed interest in the nine Africans enslaved by President George Washington in the shadow of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

Washington’s enslaved cook, Hercules Posey, the nation’s first celebrity chef, managed the kitchen at the President’s House. He became an ancestor on May 15, 1812. To honor his memory, I will submit my nomination of Hercules for a Pennsylvania historical marker on May 15, 2026.

Before Hercules, there was Hannah Archer Hill (1721-1826). Born into slavery, Hannah was General George Washington’s enslaved cook during the grueling winter at the Valley Forge encampment.

Hannah and her husband, Isaac, purchased their freedom in December 1778. She continued to work for General Washington as a salaried cook through all of his campaigns for the next six and a half years. For six months, her services were lent to the Marquis de Lafayette, who led troops under the command of General Washington.

The position of personal cook to the Commander-in-Chief required culinary skills as well as unwavering loyalty due to the threat of assassination by poisoning.

Following the Revolutionary War, Hannah and Issac made their home in Philadelphia where she lived until her death at age 105.

In 2015, Hannah was honored for her contributions during the Revolutionary War. She was recognized as a Patriot by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). A plaque was installed on her headstone in Historic Eden Cemetery. A DAR chapter was named in her honor.

During his triumphal tour of America, the Marquis de Lafayette stopped in Philadelphia in September 1824. Lafayette’s whirlwind of events included a three-mile-long welcoming parade, a temporary arch, and a Grand Ball where Francis “Frank” Johnson, a forefather of jazz, performed his composition, General La Fayette Bugle Waltz.

Lafayette made time to visit Hannah. When he learned that “Aunt Hannah” was behind on her ground rent, Lafayette sent her money to pay off her debt. The site of Hannah’s residence is a stop on my walking tour, Hercules Posey’s Philadelphia.

To be added to the mailing list for the walking tour, send your name and email address to andersonatlarge@gmail.com.

Advocacy, Hercules Posey, President Trump, The President's House

Appeals Court Pauses Restoration of President’s House Site

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In the wake of U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe’s order to restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026, the National Park Service began to reinstall the interpretive panels that were yanked from the walls.

The deadline to restore the President’s House Site was February 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM. The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service appealed Judge Rufe’s order to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

With an hour to go before the 5:00 PM deadline, Judge Thomas M. Hardiman granted a stay of execution. The federal government does not have to fully restore the President’s House Site for the duration of the appeal. Judge Hardiman ordered the federal government to preserve the slavery memorial’s physical status as of February 20, 2026.

The federal government cannot remove the 16 interpretive glass panels that were reinstalled or turn off the four functioning video monitors (the fifth monitor was nonfunctional prior to January 21, 2026). So, for the foreseeable future, the President’s House Site will be a mashup of the original glass panels and signs of creative resistance.

I spent the first day of Black History Month at the President’s House Site. Twenty days later, I was back at the slavery memorial leading a Truth in History Teach-In organized by the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides. I shared stories about the nine Black enslaved people who worked and lived in the shadow of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I told the history that President Trump wants to whitewash, including Ona Judge who “absconded from the household of the President of the United States” on May 21, 1796.

Nine months later, President Washington’s enslaved chef, Hercules Posey, self-emancipated from Mount Vernon on February 22, 1797, Washington’s 65th birthday.

Like Ona Judge, Hercules was never caught.

I am nominating Hercules Posey, the nation’s first celebrity chef, for a Pennsylvania historical marker.

If the nomination is approved, Hercules will join Ona whose marker was dedicated in 2023.

For updates, send your name and email address to phillyjazzapp@gmail.com.

Cultural Heritage Preservation

Sun Ra: A Cosmic Visionary Who Dared to Do the Impossible

Sun Ra, born Herman Poole Blount (1914-1993), grew up in the Jim Crow South and later transformed himself into a celestial being from Saturn. He created cultural aesthetics that imagined liberation from racism and white supremacist shackles. Sun Ra fused swing, bebop, free jazz, electric keyboards and synthesizers to create his sui generis avant-garde sound.

Sun Ra’s embrace of Egyptian iconography, space-age imagery and alternative historiography laid the foundation for aliberatory technology, a future of possibilities in a society that said there weren’t any. The “Godfather of Afrofuturism” reimagined Black identity across space and time. His influence is recognized in venerable cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

This week, PBS American Masters will premiere Sun Ra: Do the Impossible, a feature-length documentary that provides a definitive look at the life and cosmic philosophy of the jazz visionary.

The documentary explores Sun Ra’s early years in Birmingham, Alabama, his formative time in Chicago where he established the communal lifestyle of the Arkestra, and his later years in Philadelphia.

Sun Ra: Do the Impossible premieres Friday, February 20 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).

Advocacy, President Trump

Kennedy Center’s Black History Month Goes Dark

For the first time in decades, there are no Black History Month events at the Kennedy Center. The Washington Post reported:

As the calendar turns to February, many museums and cultural centers across the country are readying their programming for Black History Month. At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, however, the online calendar lists no scheduled events to honor Black History Month, following artist relocations and cancellations.

In the past, the national center for the arts has offered an array of programming keyed to the month-long celebration of Black history, including an annual concert and tributes to African American icons, such as D.C. native Duke Ellington. But the choirs that long performed those concerts moved their performances to other venues after President Donald Trump took over the Kennedy Center by purging its board of trustees last year, and it appears no other thematic programming was added in those events’ stead.

The sound of cancellations is music to my ears.

In a social media post on the first day of Black History Month, Trump, chairman of the Kennedy Center, proposed closing the storied venue for “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding” for two years, starting on July 4, 2026.

I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “In other words, if we don’t close, the quality of Construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruptions with Audiences from the many Events using the Facility, will be much longer. The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!

Chairman Trump said the proposal is subject to the approval of his board of trustees sycophants. Closing the Kennedy Center is a transparent way to save further embarrassment from cancellations, plummeting ticket sales, small pool of potential Kennedy Center honorees, and even lower viewership for the Kennedy Center Honors CBS broadcast.

Under Trump’s chairmanship, ain’t nothing going on at the Kennedy Center but chaos and the rent.

Advocacy, President Trump, The President's House

Black History Month 2026

Dr. Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week in 1926 to honor African American contributions that were “overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them.” February was chosen because Black Americans already celebrated the birthdays of the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and the Great Orator Frederick Douglass (February 14).

Black History Month was first nationally recognized 50 years ago by President Gerald R. Ford who on February 10, 1976 issued a Message on the Observance of Black History Month:

One hundred years ago, to help highlight these achievements, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. We are grateful to him today for his initiative, and we are richer for the work of his organization.

Freedom and the recognition of individual rights are what our Revolution was all about. They were ideals that inspired our fight for Independence: ideals that we have been striving to live up to ever since. Yet it took many years before these ideals became a reality for black citizens.

Fifty years later, President Donald Trump is sending a different message. Trump aggregates unto himself the authority to overlook, ignore and suppress Black history, and whitewash “what our Revolution was all about.”

Without notice to the City of Philadelphia, the National Park Service dismantled the President’s House Site which opened on December 15, 2010 after years of cooperation between the Park Service, the City and the public.

On the eve of Black History Month, a hearing was held (here and here) in federal district court on the City’s complaint for a preliminary injunction to stop the suppression of the history of slavery. The City wants U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe to order the Defendants to restore the President’s House Site to its status as of January 21, 2026.

The Defendants claim “the National Park Service is the sole decision maker as to what is exhibited on its property.” They claim that Trump has absolute authority to order the signs removed. The “administration issued the executive order that resulted in this action… The government gets to choose the message it wants to convey.”

Judge Rufe said “that’s a dangerous statement. That’s horrifying to listen to. [History] changes on the whim of someone in charge? Sorry. That’s not what we elected anybody for.”

Judge Rufe plans to inspect the displays removed from the President’s House. She also will visit the site. When she does, she will see the Park Service cleared the snow on Independence Mall and left the President’s House Site covered in snow and ice.

Judge Rufe is likely to issue her ruling in March 2026.

In the meantime, I spent the first day of Black History Month at the President’s House Site. I posted the “runaway slave” ad that Frederick Kitt, steward of the presidential household, placed in the Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser offering a ten-dollar reward for the return of Oney Judge who “absconded from the household of the President of the United States.”

It was heartwarming to see the steady stream of visitors in the bitter cold and the creative forms of resistance.

As soon as the weather breaks, I plan to reserve People’s Plaza, the public square near the President’s House Site where protesting is allowed. I will set up my boombox and play protest songs. I expect the Park Service will “say my music’s too loud.”

UPDATE: On February 2, 2026, Judge Cynthia M. Rufe conducted a visual inspection of the signs removed from the President’s House Site by the National Park Service. Thirty-four panels were removed, some of which “exhibited damage.” The panels are stored in a secure location at the National Constitution Center.

“The government is ORDERED to continue to securely store all removed panels and to mitigate any further deterioration or damage.”

With respect to the Memorial, the enclosed space near the entrance to the Liberty Bell Center that is in the footprint of President Washington’s slave quarters, “no further removal and/or destruction of the President’s House site will be permitted until further order of the Court.”

Advocacy, Hercules Posey, President's House.ai, The President's House

Philly Fights Erasure

President Trump likely has not read George Orwell who warned us: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Trump wants to control the American narrative. So on his directive, the National Park Service is acting like it’s 1984.

On January 22, 2026 – without notice to the City of Philadelphia – the National Park Service unilaterally removed artwork and interpretive panels from the President’s House Site that “tells the story of the paradox of liberty and enslavement in one home – and in a nation.” The story reflects decades of scholarly research about the nine enslaved Africans who were brought by President George Washington from Mount Vernon to work in the executive mansion.

The panels and artwork were unceremoniously tossed in the back of a pickup truck and taken to a “secure location.”

Before the signs were unloaded in the still undisclosed “secure location,” the City of Philadelphia filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The City claims the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service violated a 2006 cooperative agreement that “through a series of amendments, detailed the design of the President’s House Project as well as the rights and responsibilities of the parties.” According to the complaint, “the City has an equal right with the NPS under these agreements to approve the final design of the President’s House Project.”

The City asks the Court to declare that the Defendants’ removal of the artwork and interpretive signs violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The City argues the Defendants “have provided no explanation at all for their removal of the historical, educational displays at the President’s House site, let alone a reasoned one.”

The City further argues “there is no statutory or other authority for the Secretary to remove and destroy [National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom] sites after designation and doing so runs counter to the express purpose of the Administrative Procedure Act.”

The bottom line: The City seeks “An order restoring the President’s House Site to its status as of January 21, 2026.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro posted on X that “Donald Trump will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash our history. But he picked the wrong city — and he sure as hell picked the wrong Commonwealth. We learn from our history in Pennsylvania, even when it’s painful.”

Shapiro said he will file an amicus brief in support of the City’s lawsuit.

Facts are stubborn things. On May 23, 1796, Frederick Kitt, steward of the presidential household, placed an ad in the Philadelphia Gazette and Universal Daily Advertiser offering a ten dollar reward “to any person who will bring [Oney Judge] home. Oney “ABSCONDED from the household of the President of the United States” on May 21, 1796.

The National Park Service designated the President’s House a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site in 2022.

Trump’s attempt to alter the facts and whitewash the history of the President’s House will not stand.

Advocacy

Happy Birthday, Dr. King

Civil rights icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. King celebrated his last birthday in 1968.

Since 1986, the nation has observed Dr. King’s birthday on the third Monday of January.

Stevie Wonder helped build support for a national holiday “to show just how much we love” the drum major for justice. In the liner notes of Hotter Than July (1980), Stevland Morris a/k/a Stevie Wonder wrote:

It is believed that for a man to lay down his life for the love of others is the supreme sacrifice. Jesus Christ by his own example showed us that there is no greater love. For nearly two thousand years now we have been striving to have the strength to follow that example. Martin Luther King was a man who had that strength. He showed us, non-violently, a better way of life, a way of mutual respect, helping us to avoid much bitter confrontation and inevitable bloodshed. We still have a long road to travel until we reach the world that was his dream. We in the United States must not forget either his supreme sacrifice or that dream.

I and a growing number of people believe that it is time for our country to adopt legislation that will make January 15, Martin Luther King’s birthday, a national holiday, both in recognition of what he achieved and as a reminder of the distance which still has to be traveled.

Join me in the observance of January 15, 1981 as a national holiday.

Happy birthday, Dr. King.