Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape: Deep Roots, Continuing Legacy

In Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape, Amy Jane Cohen explores the impact of Black Philadelphians, not only on the history of the city but also on its built environment and memorial infrastructure. Seeking to explore the “ongoing process of altering our landscape to acknowledge the deep roots and continuing legacy of Black Philadelphians,” Cohen blends historical narration with reflection from community members and memory work practitioners to educate readers about significant events and figures in Philadelphia history, with particular attention paid to the presence of such events and figures in the landscape (2). Cohen discusses historical markers and monuments, house museums, statues, murals, exhibitions, naming and renaming, and even gentrification as part of her analysis of the landscape. Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape, written for a general audience and as an educational tool for high school social studies classrooms, presents a rich map of local and national history embedded in the very streets and buildings of the city.Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape is organized chronologically into three parts, drawing on a range of secondary sources to sort Philadelphia history into the seventeenth and eighteenth, the nineteenth, and the twentieth centuries. Much of Cohen’s project in part 1 is to challenge the myth of a uniformly abolitionist North and instead illustrate not only the deep ties that Philadelphia had to slavery but also the hard-won visibility of these ties in today’s city. Chapter 1 introduces Charles Blockson’s efforts to expand historical markers relating to Black history in Pennsylvania through the African American State Historical Marker Project, using these markers as a frame through which to introduce Pennsylvania and the port city of Philadelphia as active participants in the slave trade (11).Chapter 2 deals with the characteristics of northern urban slavery, including isolation and policing, and positions Washington Square as an epicenter of Black community formation in the early 1700s (17). In chapters 3 and 4, Cohen delves into the particular histories of Dinah, a woman enslaved by the wealthy Logan family, and of free Black religious leaders Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. Each chapter of the book includes an explicit tie to Philadelphia’s modern landscape, from signage in Washington Square Park, to the Stenton house museum, to historical markers commemorating Black churchyards (41). In chapter 5, which explores George Washington’s tenure in Philadelphia and the enslaved people that lived in his presidential residence, Cohen includes extensive discussion of the President’s House site and efforts by Independence National Historical Park to contextualize and honor the truth of what occurred there. Frequently, her analysis of the landscape includes explicit reference to the labor of commemoration, not only why but also how certain markers or murals came to exist in their current forms.In part 2, the nineteenth century, Cohen continues to interpose the stories of individual Philadelphians with broader historical trends and memorialization efforts. Chapter 6 covers the 1838 race riot that saw the burning of Pennsylvania Hall, an abolitionist space, and the mural honoring its destruction that is visible today. Chapters 7 and 8 explore the lives of Underground Railroad figures Robert Purvis, William Still, William Whipper, and Stephen Smith, as well as activist Octavius Catto; Cohen also details the museums, historical markers, and statues that encode their legacy into the landscape. Chapter 9 details W. E. B. Du Bois and his sociological study of Philadelphia’s “Negro problem” (94); here, Cohen cites the gentrification of the once majority-Black Seventh Ward as a further layer of complexity to her picture of how history shapes the landscape of a city itself.Much of part 3 delves into the individual lives of prominent Philadelphians, including architect Julian Francis Abele, philosopher Alain Locke, singer Marian Anderson, economist Sadie Alexander, activist Paul Robeson, pastor Leon Sullivan, and lawyer Cecil B. Moore. These chapters employ biographical content as a focal point to explore larger historical trends—Cohen touches on economic disparities between Black poor and elites, growing racism as a result of an influx of Black migrants from the South into the city, the challenges of gentrification and urban development, globalization, and the emerging influence of socialism, civil rights activism, and the Black Power movement. Throughout, Cohen continues to draw connections between modern commemorative sites—named historic districts, streets and avenues, neighborhoods, transit stops, and even an airport arrival hall—the work done to actualize them, and the histories they reflect.Chapters 16 and 19 merit particular emphasis, as here Cohen relates two significant instances of student activism: a 1968 campaign by Benjamin Franklin High School students to rename the school in honor of Malcolm X, and a 1967 student walkout for better African American history, more Black teachers, and greater freedom of expression in schools. As Cohen writes, “the notion that learning Black history should be a priority for the young people of Philadelphia” and the importance of naming and memorializing the contributions of Black people in Philadelphia’s history remain pivotal both to her project of examining the relationship between history and landscape and within the broader public consciousness (197). In 2005, Philadelphia adopted a year-long course in African American history as a requirement for high school graduation; in 2022 a historical marker was unveiled commemorating the 1967 walkout (198).Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape is written for a general audience, but with particular care for students, like those in Philadelphia’s high schools, with an interest in African American history and a connection to Philadelphia’s landscape. Each chapter concludes with a list of additional resources designed to deepen or enliven its contents, and Cohen repeatedly and effectively emphasizes the role of students in both shaping Philadelphia history and commemorating it. As a teaching tool, Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape might have been strengthened by including specific endnote citations rather than a general bibliography for each chapter, and by making more consistent reference to primary sources and their role in the process of scholarly research rather than primarily employing a high-level narrative approach. That said, Cohen brings together stirring historical anecdotes from across Philadelphia’s storied history in one manuscript, and her tight focus on the connection between history and landscape creates a compelling local guidebook that will serve anyone interested in African American and Philadelphia history.