Title
Recognizing and acknowledging Michael Coard, Esquire for his tireless work as a founding member, primary researcher, and official spokesperson of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) that played a prominent and essential role in the recently successful demand for the creation of a historic commemoration to the African descendants enslaved by President George Washington at America's first "White House," which was located at the site of the new Liberty Bell Center at Sixth and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and
Body
WHEREAS, Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) is a broad-based organization of African American historians, activists, attorneys, elected officials, religious leaders, media personalities, and other tax-paying voters who are descendants of the victims of the greatest holocaust in the history of humankind; and
WHEREAS, President George Washington owned 316 Africans and African descendants at his Mount Vernon, Virginia plantation and transported to the aforementioned Philadelphia, site nine of them, whose names are Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Hercules, Joe Richardson, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris, and Richmond; and
WHEREAS, Their enslavement existed at the very time when and at the very location where the Founding Fathers were proclaiming that "all men are created equal"; and
WHEREAS, There were no plans by the Interior Department, the National Park Service, or Independence National Historical Park to acknowledge the sacrifice, struggle, and great economic contributions of those enslaved African descendants until Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) initiated relentless community activism; and
WHEREAS, That community activism consisted of nearly five years of indisputable meticulous research, voluminous letter-writing campaigns, massive vocal demonstrations, numerous strategically-organized meetings, and many well-timed media blitzes, as well as substantial persuasive documentation to the United States Depa...
Click here for full text