Tuesday, November 3rd is Election Day. Like tens of millions across the country, I voted early. If you haven’t yet voted, check the location of your polling place.
A Blue Wave will wipe out the do-nothing Republican-controlled Congress.
Voters should keep in mind Mr. Trump’s failure to keep his campaign promises, his attempts to undermine American democracy and his flagrant corruption. They should be thinking of the Republican Party’s acquiescence to this abuse of power, and they should hold Republicans accountable. Today’s Democratic Party has plenty of flaws, including a disappointing failure to present a coherent agenda of its own. Nonetheless, Democrats offer the only alternative this year to the damage that Mr. Trump and his party have inflicted on the nation. A vote for a Democratic candidate is the best way for Americans to repudiate the Trump administration’s performance over the past two years.
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He has created a culture of corruption and avarice with no precedent. He has pardoned political cronies, violent felons among them. He has used the levers of power, including regulatory oversight and diplomacy, to bring in billions of dollars of profit for his family business and his closest supporters. In 2025 alone, the president’s business empire earned $2.24 billion, nearly two-thirds of it from cryptocurrency, which Mr. Trump’s executive branch is supposed to be regulating.
What has the Republican-controlled Congress done to rein in these abuses? Virtually nothing. With only a few exceptions, the Senate has approved inept cabinet members and agency heads and then stood by as they rounded up legal immigrants, brought ludicrous criminal charges against political opponents, depleted the military of top talent and spurned the scientific consensus on the need for vaccines.
On Election Day, vote them out and party at the polls.
The National Historic Preservation Act was signed into law on October 15, 1966. With Section 106 of the NHPA under attack by the Trump administration, preservationists are not popping champagne. Instead, they are mobilizing and taking action to protect historic places.
As a community preservationist, I used the Section 106 review process to block the Philadelphia Housing Authority from demolishing 2125 Ridge Avenue, the former location of the Checker Café and one of the few extant buildings associated with Philadelphia’s golden age of jazz.
2125 Ridge Avenue is one of the four Philadelphia Section 106 success stories on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s map.
The Ridge on the Rise Mural at Checker Café is a “community-submitted Section 106 success story”:
The Ridge on the Rise mural on the south-facing wall of the Checker Café is a visual history of Ridge Avenue’s African American cultural, entertainment, and civil rights heritage. In addition to depicting the Pearl Theater, Pearl Bailey and John Coltrane, the mural addresses community protests against Girard College’s segregationist policies. The mural recalls the era when Ridge Avenue functioned as a self-contained commercial and cultural district, with shops, hotel, farmers market, restaurants, theaters, and jazz venues serving the Black community.
For nearly 90 years, 2125 Ridge Avenue has served as a visual anchor for the Ridge Avenue commercial corridor in Sharswood. In the wake of the Great Migration, the demographics of the Sharswood neighborhood changed.
Ridge Avenue became a safe haven for African Americans. 2125 Ridge Avenue was home to the Checker Café, an afterhours jazz club. In the 1930s to the 1950s, the Checker Café was the place to be and be seen. It was popular with entertainers, celebrities, and political figures. Pearl Bailey worked as a singing waitress at the Checker Café in the mid-1930s. The Checker Café was about intersectionality and diversity.
It’s October so the U.S. Supreme Court is back in session. According to the latest Gallup poll, the Court’s approval is 34%, a historic low. As the conservative justices kowtow to President Trump on affirmative action, reproductive rights, voting rights, redistricting and presidential accountability, public trust in the Court has eroded.
The Court’s conservative justices increasingly evoke Pigmeat Markham’s caricature of judicial power running amok.
But what is happening at the Court is no laughing matter. As Democracy Forward notes, “the Court has increasingly become a venue for disputes arising out of the Trump-Vance administration’s actions.”
ThePeople’s Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court, published by Democracy Forward, is a public education resource designed to help ordinary Americans understand the legal questions before the justices and the potential effects of their decisions on everyday life. The guide breaks down complicated court proceedings into accessible explanations that inform public debate and civic engagement.
By explaining the background of cases, the competing legal arguments and the rights and interests at stake, the guide helps readers understand what the Court is deciding and why those decisions matter.
To download ThePeople’s Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court 2026–2027 Term, click here.
October is Mural Arts Month in the “Mural Capital of the World.” USA Today and 10Best.com voted Philadelphia Best City for Street Art. The expert panel and readers recognize that street art “speaks to a city’s culture and personality.”
The condition of the Ridge on the Rise mural speaks volumes about the city’s split personality. As Philadelphia celebrates a century of John Coltrane, a tribute to Trane has become a symbol of civic neglect.
In August and September, I escorted busloads of visitors to the Ridge on the Rise mural. I was embarrassed as they posed for photos in front of the deteriorating cultural landmark.
On my bus tour, “Tracing Trane: John Coltrane’s North Philadelphia,” there were two international visitors, one from London and a distinguished visitor from Japan. Yasuhiro “Fuji” Fujioka is the co-author of “The John Coltrane Reference.” This is a photo of Fuji in front of the Ridge on the Rise mural.
Courtesy of Jewell A. Newton
Brian Earley was on the bus tour. He saw the condition of the mural and said something. In a letter to Mayor Cherelle Parker, Brian wrote:
On Sunday, September 27, I participated in a wonderfully conducted tour of North Philadelphia, a tour that examined the historical legacy of Philadelphia itself as the tour followed the footsteps of John Coltrane’s years living in Philadelphia.
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More upsetting for me, however, is the condition of the mural on the south facing wall of 2125 Ridge Avenue. This wall overlooks a vacant lot where once stood the famous Pearl Theater. This theater famously hosted many figures of important international significance. John Coltrane performed there, as did Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Pearl Bailey herself was discovered here.
This mural, which prominently features Cecil B. Moore, Pearl Bailey, and John Coltrane is crumbling. The bottom half of John Coltrane’s body has already fallen and is lying in pieces on the grass below.
What is problematic for me is that members of the tour included current influential figures, including famous jazz writer Yasuhiro Fujioka, who had traveled all the way from Japan to visit this and other important sites in Philadelphia. I regret to say this moment was a little embarrassing for me and for the city of Philadelphia. At one of Philadelphia’s finest hours, one of the greatest celebrations a city could hold for an artist of musical import, I had to see people who traveled from far away to see John Coltrane’s Philadelphia in a state of disrepair. What they witnessed was mostly warmth, beauty, and tremendous respect for John Coltrane and for Philadelphia’s history. But 2125 Ridge Avenue and its important mural told a conflicting story: one of neglect and disinterest.
Your voice matters. If you, too, believe that John Coltrane deserves better, contact the responsible officials. Tell them to take immediate action to assess and restore the mural.
📩 Contact: Mayor Cherelle L. Parker City Hall, Office 215 Philadelphia, PA 19107 (215) 686-2181 Contact the Mayor Online Form
Councilmember Jeffery Young, Jr. City Hall, Room 586 Philadelphia, PA 19107 jeffery.young@phila.gov (215) 686-3442, (215) 686-3443 Report an Issue Online Form
The Ridge on the Rise mural must be restored before winter weather finishes what civic neglect started.
John William Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina, the only child of John and Alice Blair Coltrane. Two months after his birth, his maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was promoted to presiding elder in the A.M.E. Zion Church. Rev. Blair moved his extended family, including his infant grandson, to High Point, North Carolina where Coltrane grew up.
After the death of his maternal grandfather, father and grandmother, Coltrane’s mother moved to Philadelphia in search of better employment opportunities around 1942. She was part of the Great Migration.
Coltrane stayed in High Point to finish his education at William Penn High School where he was voted “Best Dressed Boy” as a junior, and the “Most Musical” in his class. Coltrane moved to Philadelphia in June 1943 to join his mother. And the rest is history.
City Council designated September 23, 2026 as John Coltrane Day in Philadelphia in recognition of the city’s “central role in shaping his artistic and cultural legacy.”
Trane’s sound was honed in the clubs on the “Golden Strip” and on Ridge Avenue. He lived in North Philadelphia from 1943 to 1958, first in an apartment building and later in a rowhouse. The John Coltrane House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1999.
I used AI to bring Coltrane back to the Golden Strip.
Café Society Musical Bar was a popular spot on the Golden Strip. It was located three blocks from Coltrane’s apartment. Café Society is the first stop on my upcoming bus tour, Tracing Trane: A Tour of John Coltrane’s North Philadelphia, on Sunday, September 27, 2026. The tour is presented by Scribe Video Center’s North Philadelphia History Festival: The John Coltrane Edition.
The bus tour is free but reservations are required. You can RSVP here.
Trane’s final performance in Philadelphia was on November 11, 1966 at the last tour stop, Mitten Hall .
John Coltrane joined the ancestors on July 17, 1967.
The National Historic Preservation Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 15, 1966. Section 106 of the NHPA requires recipients of federal funding to review whether their actions will have an “adverse effect” on a property eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Section 106 review mandates that agencies consult with State Historic Preservation Officers, Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, community organizations, and the public. The goal is to identify potential historic resources, assess adverse effects, and explore ways to avoid or mitigate harm before a project proceeds. Section 106 protection applies to housing, transportation, infrastructure, federal properties, community development, and other projects.
Section 106 review saved from complete demolition Carman Gardens (here and here), a 1920 building that started out as a silent movie house and was later converted into a roller skating rink. Roger Lloyd bought Carman Gardens Roller Skating Rink in the mid-1970s. Under Lloyd’s leadership, the rink became a safe space for North Philadelphia’s Black community. He kept the rink open for 46 years.
Faye Anderson, director of All That Philly Jazz, was a Section 106 consulting party for the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s Sharswood/Blumberg Transformation Project. She objected to the proposed demolition of 2125 Ridge Avenue, one of the few extant buildings associated with Philadelphia’s golden age of jazz. 2125 Ridge Avenue was home to the Checker Café, an afterhours jazz club. In the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, the Checker Café was the place to be and be seen. The State Historic Preservation Officer agreed with Anderson that 2125 Ridge Avenue is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
If 2125 Ridge Avenue had been demolished, we would have lost a building that holds stories of jazz legends like Billie Holiday and Pearl Bailey. We also would have lost the Ridge on the Rise mural painted on the south-facing wall of the Checker Café site.
Section 106 review is under attack by President Trump. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has proposed a major rewrite of the regulations governing Section 106 that would narrow the scope of review of federally-funded projects and reduce public participation.
A new coalition of nearly 700 organizations and Tribal Nations, including All That Philly Jazz, is fighting back. They signed an open letter urging Congress to protect and strengthen Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The national coalition is spearheaded by Cultural Heritage Partners. They asked that Congress:
Reject the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation’s proposed regulatory gutting of Section 106.
Record your opposition during the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ review and the public comment period, now underway.
Reject statutory changes that weaken Section 106, whether advanced independently or as part of a broader permitting package.
Defend Congress’s constitutional authority against executive efforts to narrow, circumvent, or evade the preservation laws Congress enacted.
Seek genuine improvements to Section 106 based on facts and data to make review more valuable and efficient without trading away the rights, voices, and protections that make the process meaningful.
The first National Park Week was observed in August 1991 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the National Park Service. Since 1994, it has been an annual celebration organized by the National Park Service to highlight America’s national parks and the natural, cultural, and historical resources they protect. This year, the celebration runs from August 22 through August 30, 2026.
The National Park Week soundtrack curated by the National Parks Conservation Association includes James Brown’s “Living in America.”
Today, we are living in an America in which the President’s House, a National Park Service site, was desecrated and whitewashed interpretive panels installed under the cover of darkness.
The National Parks Conservation Association is calling for a Day of Action to defend America’s national parks from attacks on park staffing, funding, public lands, and the preservation of American history. Participants are encouraged to contact government officials, support National Park Service employees, sign petitions, attend demonstrations and community events, and publicly oppose policies that threaten the parks and the stories they tell.
It’s serendipitous that the Day of Action coincides with Avenging The Ancestors Coalition’s mass protest at the President’s House on August 25, 2026.
Attorney Michael Coard, founder of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition, told the Philadelphia Tribune:
We will have local, state and federal elected officials, along with civic leaders, clergy and community activists. We’ve gotten permission from the city to block off the 500 block of Market Street and 6th Street from Market to Chestnut and place a massive stage in the middle of Market Street, This is going to be big. We’re not just rallying to rally. We expect to make history.
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We took a page out of the playbook of our activist ancestors in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, They sent attorneys into the courtrooms to raise issues and activists into the streets to raise hell. That’s exactly what we’re doing.
On July 24, President Trump’s bootlickers on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation voted to gut Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. For six decades, Section 106 has required the federal government to examine whether federally funded, licensed or permitted projects would have an “adverse effect” on properties listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The protection applies to housing, transportation, infrastructure, federal properties, community development, and other projects.
The proposed changes would dismantle public safeguards by:
Silencing public and community participation;
Weakening consultation with state and local preservation agencies;
Limiting consideration of alternatives that could prevent or minimize damage to historic places;
Giving federal agencies greater power to approve projects with far less public accountability.
The public review process was written into the law because Americans understood that once a historic building is demolished, a community’s cultural heritage is erased and there is no bringing it back.
Section 106 has never been about stopping progress. It is about ensuring that development does not come at the expense of history, culture, and community voices. It guarantees that the public has a seat at the table before the bulldozers arrive.
The ACHP’s proposed changes to Section 106 will eviscerate the preservation of our shared civic and cultural heritage in the United States.
In 2017, I used the Section 106 review process to block the Philadelphia Housing Authority from demolishing 2125 Ridge Avenue, the former location of the Checker Café. The property is one of the few extant buildings from Philadelphia’s golden age of jazz.
The Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office agreed with me that 2125 Ridge Avenue is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. PHA was forced to stabilize the structure.
In the intervening years, PHA has let the building further deteriorate. Even in its dilapidated state, 2125 Ridge Avenue has more character than the cookie-cutter apartment buildings that now line Ridge Avenue from the former location of the Blue Note to the Checker Café.
The Blue Note and Checker Café are stops on the upcoming Neighborhood Jawnts Tour Series: Jazz in North Philly. I will lead the trolley tour the weekend of August 14-16, 2026.
The trolley tour is free and open to the public. Registration is required. To register, go here.
Since the truth-telling interpretive panels were swapped for President Trump’s Orwellian signs, National Park Rangers and US Police are watching people at the President’s House Site.
In the coming weeks, the Park Service will install Verkada surveillance equipment, including two security camera module trailers, zoom camera, bullet camera, fisheye camera and four-camera multisensor camera.
The Orwellian surveillance system will not be installed to protect the public. According to the National Park Service Incident Reports, there were no incidents at the President’s House Site from 2002-2025. The cameras will monitor peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.
Without their permission, the faces of people who visit the President’s House or walk pass the site on their way to the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall will be scanned. Their biometric data will be stored and accessible by law enforcement agencies.
Avenging The Ancestors Coalition is convening a “First Amendment: Know Your Rights” town hall meeting via Zoom.
Registration is required. To register, click here.
Under the cover of darkness, the National Park Service replaced the interpretive panels that told the story of the paradox of slavery and liberty at the President’s House. The new Orwellian panels are a mix of obfuscations, omissions, equivocations and oxymorons.
In the name of “restoring truth and sanity to American history,” President Trump has turned the President’s House into an armed camp. The site is surrounded by National Park Service Rangers, U.S. Park Police and vehicles, and new security cameras.
This is what fascism looks like. Visitors on their way to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall will pass the President’s House Site with Big Brother watching.
During a press conference, Michael Coard, founder of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition, said, “This is nothing more than Big Brother’s Ministry of Truth, where the government turns the truth into a lie and the lie into a truth.”
President Trump’s Ministry of Truth claims the enslaved Africans living in the first executive mansion experienced a “modicum of freedom.” One is either free or enslaved. At the President’s House, as at Mount Vernon, President George Washington had absolute control over Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Hercules, Joe, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris and Richmond.
While erasing the horrors of slavery, Trump’s revisionists note the president’s “discomfort” with slavery. Washington’s alleged “discomfort” did not lead him to free a single enslaved person in his lifetime. He pursued Ona Judge until the day he died. Ona was never caught.
Washington stole the labor and freedom of hundreds of enslaved Black people. The propagandists highlight a single instance when “Hercules’ son Richmond was caught stealing at Mount Vernon.” While Big Brother uses a racist trope, Washington recognized the theft was an act of resistance. In a letter to his farm manager, William Pearce, Washington suspected it was for “the purpose perhaps of a journey together.” Hercules self-emancipated from Mount Vernon three months later.
The City remains committed to the honest and accurate portrayal of history at the President’s House. A portrayal that was the hard-fought and hard-won result of the effort of countless federal, state, and local officials as well as advocates, including Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, dedicated to telling the truth. A broad coalition of people who worked together to identify, create, design, fund, and implement the President’s House. They did not always agree, but together they reached agreement. They shared a truth that I hold self-evident: you cannot erase American history.
Overnight, under the cover of darkness, the federal government removed panels at the President’s House that told a thorough history of Philadelphia. It was allowed to do this by the decision of the federal court, but that it did so at night shows it understands this action is shameful, that it violates community trust. Which it is, and which it does. But the fight is not over, as we will continue the fight.
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To my fellow Philadelphians and Americans, please know: I will continue fighting on behalf of everyone who supports the core belief: All of our history must be told.”
History should not be rewritten or erased because it is difficult or uncomfortable. Removing educational materials that document the experiences of the enslaved people who lived and labored at the President’s House does not change what happened. It only denies future generations the opportunity to learn from our past.
The decision to remove these panels by the U.S. Government this week only reinforces how troubling this action is. Carrying out these removals violated the community’s trust and diminished a site built through years of public engagement, collaboration, and consensus.
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Removing the original exhibits is an effort to continue whitewashing American history. Removing items from the President’s House merely changes the landscape, not the historical record.
