With little fanfare, President Trump has tapped Hillsdale College to produce a video series, “The Story of America.” A member of the Project 2025 network, the conservative Christian college’s demographically monochromatic faculty and student body does not look like America.

The teaching of Black history is under attack from the White House to state houses. It is not in my DNA to bend the knee. I am speaking about Moses Williams at the upcoming public history teach-in co-hosted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and 1838 Black Metropolis.

Moses Williams was enslaved by Charles Willson Peale whose portrait of George Washington is prominently displayed in Trump’s tricked out Oval Office. The title of my presentation is “Mapping Moses Williams’ Philadelphia.”

On Friday, April 25, historian and artist Nell Irvin Painter will give a keynote address, “Arrived, New Names.” Painter “will set the tone for exploring how creative projects can share complicated and compelling histories.”

On Saturday, April 25, public historians, educators, artists, preservationists and community members will share strategies on how they are breathing life into the archives to tell untold or undertold stories, and stories of belonging.

The event is open to the public. To register, go here.