Monuments can be tricky. Although their purpose is to commemorate a historical figure or event for posterity, our view of history is not static. The past stays the same, but…
The seeds of Black history month were planted by historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926 — but to him, it was just a week, and not meant to be the…
In August 2023, West Philly will have a new historical marker. Hakim’s Bookstore and Gift Shop, founded in 1959, is one of the oldest Black-owned bookstores in the nation. It…
In November I wrote an article about the Coaquannock map of the Philadelphia region that was published by the Works Progress Administration in 1934. The map’s date immediately resonated, as I recalled…
I gave a Zoom presentation in July about my favorite topic: local African American history. I talked briefly about the August 1944 Philadelphia Transit Company strike, a wildcat strike that occurred when…
Any American schoolchild can tell you that Philadelphia is the birthplace of the nation. As the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was written, we…
Fred Wiseman’s cinema verité documentary High School is a 75-minute time capsule of a different world. It was filmed at Northeast High School during March and April of 1968. Teachers, clad in suits…
10 years ago I was working on an article about the local civil rights movement for the now-defunct Legacies magazine of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I came across this flyer in…
