African American Studies Commons^™

The 1985 Move Bombing: A Study In Perspectives, Kaci Delisle

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a military grade bomb on 6221 Osage Avenue, a row house in a Black neighborhood in West Philadelphia. This home was occupied by a revolutionary group called MOVE. The bomb started a fire that the police and firefighters decided to “contain” rather than put out, resulting in the deaths of eleven people and the destruction of sixty-one homes. Only two MOVE members survived the fire. Using court records, documents from the investigation conducted by the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (PSIC), and other interviews regarding MOVE and the bombing, this paper reconstructs different perspectives …

Marietta J. Tanner, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

Interviewee: Marietta J. Tanner

Interviewers: Mark Naison, Donna Joseph, Saudah Muhammad

Date: July 2020

Summarized by Sophia Maier

Marietta J. Tanner was born in 1928 in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Influenced by the activism of her father and the wartime experiences of her uncle, Marietta is a life-long political activist. Her parents explained to her from a young age their experiences in Jim Crow era Pennsylvania and by the age of six she was passing out political pamphlets and registering people to vote with the rest of her family. After attending a segregated school in her youth and a brief period …

"At The Peril Of Our Lives": Race, Citizenship, And Philadelphia's 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic., Abigail Posey

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The late-eighteenth century was a crucial time for determining the social role of black people in Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania at large. In 1780, the state legislature began a gradual abolition process that contributed to a growing free Black population in the city, while many other Black Philadelphians remained in bondage. Their livelihoods remained restricted by anti-Black laws that contributed to the overall poor health of Black Philadelphians. As the yellow fever epidemic began in 1793, Philadelphia’s medical community supported racist scientific myths that Black people possessed a natural immunity to yellow fever. In an agreement with the city and Dr. …

A Theodicy Of Redemptive Suffering In African American Involvement Led By Absalom Jones And Richard Allen In The Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic Of 1793, Kyle Boone

Undergraduate Student Scholarship – History

This paper is a historical investigation into the involvement of African Americans during the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. It explores key figures, details, medical realities, and media representation. The particular focus lies on the dilemma of suffering in the world and how the African American understanding of evil in this community led to their decision of involvement. Their understanding of theodicy will be weighed against modern philosophical and theological attempts to deal with theodicy.

Two Tales Of A City: Nineteenth-Century Black Philadelphia, Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] In the tension between Forging Freedom and Roots of Violence certain themes present themselves for further research and thought. Neither volume successfully analyzes the historical roots of the African-American class structure. This is especially evident in each book's treatment of the black middling orders. While neither defines the category with clarity, their basic assumption that small shopkeepers and regularly employed workers were critical to the community's ability to withstand some of the worst shocks of racism is important. The clash between these books also raises questions concerning the role of pre-industrial cultural values in the transition to industrial capitalism. …

Silvers, Cleo Interview 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Cleo Silvers

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison, Lily Clarkson

Date of interview February 21, 2007

Summarized by Alice Stryker

Cleo Silvers comes from a very interesting background. She grew up in Elmwood, a suburb of Philadelphia, with both her paternal and maternal grandparents close by. Her ancestors on her father’s side were slaves and moved to Philadelphia from South Carolina with many former slaves. Her mother’s ancestors were free and assisted in the Underground Railroad.

Her mother had her when she was 18 and married her father who was 12 years older then her mother. Her father was the manager …