President George Washington signed the Fugitive Slave Act on February 12, 1793. #BlackHistoryMonth

I spent the first day of #BlackHistoryMonth at the President’s House Site. I posted President Washington’s “runaway slave” ad offering a ten dollar reward for the return of Oney Judge. It was heartening to see a steady stream of visitors in the bitter cold and the creative forms of resistance. ❤️🖤💚

“This case is another line in the sand when it comes to a free press." In a brief supporting @nytimes.com’s lawsuit against the Defense Department, @rcfp.org urged a federal court to reject the Pentagon’s restrictive new press access rules.

When I started Democracy Docket in 2020, I knew I wanted to build an entirely free website for news, information and analysis about what is happening to democracy. It now has free daily and weekly newsletters and a premium membership that helps pay for it all! Check it out. www.democracydocket.com

Post a pic of the venue where you saw your first concert, and a picture of the band/ artist. Dexter Gordon, Oct. 1978, Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia. Check out @andersonatlarge.bsky.social's All That Philly Jazz website phillyjazz.us/2016/12/26/w... for the city's epic jazz history.

In 2025, @rcfp.org attorneys litigated over 120 matters on behalf of journalists and news outlets — challenging everything from press restrictions around state executions to federal secrecy on immigration enforcement. Read about all of our work defending press freedom in our year in review:

2026 is already significantly more embarrassing and dread-inducing than 2025.

Chuck Redd should call Richard Grenell’s bluff. If the Kennedy Center sues, Redd would gain access to Board minutes and financial records. As long as Donald Trump’s name desecrates the memorial to John F. Kennedy, the only jazz should be live from the archives. 🎶 phillyjazz.us/2026/01/04/w...

Remembering Moses Williams who passed away #OTD in 1830. I plastered his silhouette all over Freeman Alley in NYC. Pasting over others’ stickers is part of the culture of Freeman Alley. When Moses’ Pennsylvania historical marker is unveiled in 2026, he will have a permanent place in public memory.

Sounds like activism: musicians who fight for change – in pictures

Save the date! Douglass Day 2026 "All Rights for All" Fri, February 13 Sign up today! DouglassDay.org Feat. the Colored Conventions Project! @ccp-org.bsky.social @digblk.bsky.social

Today. ICYMI @andersonatlarge.bsky.social conducted a walking tour of #BillieHoliday 's Philadelphia. The tour, in partnership with @scribevideo.bsky.social as part of 'Fall of Freedom,' a nationwide arts project led by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage share.inquirer.com/NQwwBh

🎶 Experience history, art, and creative resistance on the streets of Philadelphia. ✨ Join All That Philly Jazz and Scribe Video Center for #FallOfFreedom. 📅 Saturday, November 22, 2025 🕙 10:00 am to 12:00 pm 🎟️ Free and open to the public fall-of-freedom-billie-holidays-philadelphia.eventbrite.com

My nomination was approved! 🎉 In 2026—the 250th anniversary of his birth—Moses Williams, a master silhouette artist, will be honored with a PA historical marker. For too long, only his enslaver, Charles Willson Peale, was remembered. #MosesWilliams250 #TellTheFullStory @vruss.bsky.social

Harriet Tubman began her journey to freedom #OTD in 1849. This would be a good day for Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker to speak out against the whitewashing of American history. There would be no President’s House if her predecessors had not fought alongside Avenging The Ancestors Coalition.

Please join the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, for their signature lecture with legendary radio host and influencer Dyana Williams, Mother of Black Music Month. Williams will share her insights on “Black Music as History.” www.eventbrite.com/e/black-musi...

A group of activists, architects, technologists and engineers will digitally reconstruct the original President’s House at 190 High Street in Philadelphia. We will create AI avatars of the 9️⃣ Africans enslaved by President Washington in the shadow of the Liberty Bell. phillyjazz.us/2025/08/24/t...

Today is International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition. When I lived in Dakar, Senegal, I spent many afternoons on Gorée Island at the Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves). I would stand in the “Door of No Return” and stare at the Atlantic Ocean. #NeverForget

America250 said the quiet part out loud for MAGA slow-learners: Our tees aren’t just shirts, they’re a statement. In the Artificial Intelligence era, representation still matters. If you don’t look like the AI models, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is not about you. #DEI

These America250 images remove any doubt about who is officially included in the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The models don’t represent the diversity of the emerging nation’s population or today’s diverse population. #DEI

Gift article by @andersonatlarge.bsky.social on efforts to erase The President's House in Philly: share.inquirer.com/WAfbs6

President George Washington enslaved nine Black people in the shadow of the Liberty Bell when he lived in the President’s House in Philadelphia. The memory site is now in the crosshairs as President Trump tries to whitewash American history. phillyjazz.us/2025/07/28/t...

Louis Armstrong is a Founding Father of jazz. The iconic trumpeter chose to celebrate his birthday on #July4th. Happy birthday, Pops. 🎺🎉🥳🎇

On June 25, 2025, I will give a free gallery talk about the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s “Message In Our Music” exhibit. Part of my talk is ripped from the headlines–Kroger’s “Free@Last” #Juneteenth cake and The Met's “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” Register here: bit.ly/June25Galler...

We’re back at the DC Board of Elections to resubmit new language for the Homes Not Stadiums ballot initiative titled Homes Not Stadiums Act of 2025. Stay tuned!

RFK Stadium Plan Criticized by Economists southernmarylandchronicle.com/2025/06/10/r...

@vruss.bsky.social I hope you can attend the opening reception. #BlackMusicMonth #BlackHistory

Join us for opening of Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s exhibition, “Voices of the Community: Local Black Preservation.” I curated an exhibit on Black music from 1770s to 1970s. Opening reception is on June 12, 2025, 6-8pm. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP: bit.ly/LocalBlackPr...

The DEI – Didn’t Earn It – crowd doesn’t know that #MemorialDay was first observed by the formerly enslaved in Charleston, SC on May 1, 1865. The willfully ignorant don’t know that Black men have fallen in every conflict from Bunker Hill to Afghanistan. phillyjazz.us/2025/05/25/m...

We will not win the battle for democracy if those in the pro-democracy movement prize caution over taking risks. We cannot permit ourselves to be deterred by the defeats and public criticism that are inevitable along the long path of restoring democracy. Now is the time for fearless leadership.

Black dandyism is as old as the republic. I include image of a dandy in Historical Society of Pennsylvania's exhibit, “Voices of the Community: Local Black Preservation.” Mark your calendar for my gallery talk “Sounds of Freedom, Resistance & Resilience” on 6/24/25. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/a...

@acls1919.bsky.social, the AHA, & @modernlanguage.bsky.social filed a lawsuit in federal district court today, seeking to reverse the recent actions of the NEH to devastate the agency, including the elimination of grant programs, staff, and entire divisions and programs. 🗃️

The teaching of Black history is under attack from the White House to state houses. Join us at a public history teach-in cohosted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and 1838 Black Metropolis. I will give a presentation on silhouette artist Moses Williams. Info: bit.ly/publichistor...

Check out @andersonatlarge.bsky.social's column at the Inquirer: share.inquirer.com/fHEcVn

Eighteen months before the midterms, the Republican National Committee is litigating more than 40 cases aimed at making voting more difficult. In North Carolina, the GOP is literally trying to steal a state Supreme Court seat won by a Democrat last November.

From the Washington Post- National Park Service is rewriting history by deleting the truth about Harriet Tubman and more: wapo.st/4jdXL8m

"This is not partisan. This is a matter of national survival. If the press is not free, the people are not free." A new @ncronline.bsky.social editorial decries the Trump administration's "dangerous assault on the free press."

My law firm is currently litigating 50 voting and election cases in 21 states. I expect new cases will be filed this week. States with the most cases: AZ, GA, NC, NV, FL, LA, PA.

Because Harriet Tubman's true story is being erased on the National Park Service website - a look back of a couple of the several stories I wrote about Tubman on the 200th anniversary of her birth in 2022 share.inquirer.com/Ab7kcI

President Trump’s latest diktat wants to whitewash history. More than 60% of the signers of the Declaration of Independence enslaved Black people. When Thomas Jefferson drafted the document, he was accompanied by an enslaved servant whose sister, Sally Hemings, was Jefferson’s enslaved baby mama.

The only thing standing between Donald Trump and his authoritarian dream is the courts. But to defeat him, we need lawyers willing to litigate against him. Trump is trying to intimidate lawyers and law firms to stop fighting. At least for me, it won't work. I wear his scorn like a badge of honor.

If, as Mario Cuomo once said, “You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose,” then Trump issues executive orders as performance art. Like many of his others, this order is confused, rhetorical and — in places — nonsensical. It asserts facts that are not true and claims authority he does not possess.

The Pentagon erased Jackie Robinson’s Army service from its website—just like it’s erasing Black Troops and DEI across the board. This isn’t a glitch. This is deliberate. They want to rewrite history. We’re not letting them. MORE: www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...

"I don’t have an exact tally of books that rely on FOIA-produced documents. & given the nature of the subject matter – information that was handed over out of legal obligation, sometimes after litigation – I don’t think the government will provide one any time soon." My full @muckrock.com essay:

[email protected] I want to share my blog post about unlawful termination of NPS employees. As you’ll read, I’m particularly interested in the Portrait Gallery in the Second Bank. Are there demonstrations planned in Philadelphia or NYC on March 22nd? phlwatchdog.org/2025/03/17/s...

You ready for round two?! Protect the Parks Protest is back! This Saturday, March 22—show up to support your closest national park site. Can we get someone at all 433 NPS units?? 🏔️🌵🏕️

A look inside @andersonatlarge.bsky.social's fight to shed light on the Philadelphia 76ers’ now-abandoned push to build a $1.3 billion arena, fueled by free legal help from RCFP attorneys:

With free legal support from RCFP attorneys, journalist @andersonatlarge.bsky.social is still fighting for access to records that could shed light on the Philadelphia 76ers’ now-abandoned plans to build an arena near Chinatown.

www.inquirer.com/arts/charles... noticed by @andersonatlarge.bsky.social

The public has a right to know how the 76ers arena debacle happened, writes @andersonatlarge.bsky.social, but city officials are still trying to shield related records. “Scrutinizing actions of the government doesn’t just apply to ‘completed’ deals,” said RCFP's Paula Knudsen Burke.