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Philadelphia



  • Review: J.T. Roane Tells Black Philadelphia's History from the Margins

    by Charles W. McKinney

    Roane picks up a challenge offered by W.E.B. DuBois in his pioneering "The Philadelphia Negro" to understand the spaces of alternative and underground social life as important and formative parts of Black urban life in the Great Migration. 



  • Inventing Solitary Confinement

    Kali Nicole Gross, Ashley Rubin, Jen Manion and Paul Takagi offer insight into the historical irony of modern incarceration's roots in Philadelphia, the nominal cradle of American liberty. 



  • Scars and Stripes

    by Martha S. Jones

    "With that backstory embedded in its lyrics, Key’s anthem and the flag it sought to honor share a symbolic potency that has endured over two centuries. They both carry the power to divide and to unite us."



  • The Suburban Strategy

    Novelist Zinzi Clemmons looks to the history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania to consider, with help from historian Lara Putnam, the implications of Democrats' pursuit of the elusive suburban voter. 



  • The Shocking MOVE Bombing was Part of a Broader Pattern of Anti-Black Racism

    by J.T. Roane

    The Philadelphia Police Department bears responsibility for the deadly bombing of the rowhouse occupied by MOVE members, but the carnage shows a long pattern of indifference by multiple municipal departments to the health, safety, and quality of life of Black residents in the 1970s and 1980s. 



  • Princeton Owes the Families of the MOVE Bombing Victims Answers

    by Judith Weisenfeld, Ruha Benjamin et al.

    Members of the Princeton faculty argue that "the victims of the MOVE bombing, their families, and those of us at Princeton invested in Black history and communities deserve more" than the university's statements to date about the use of remains of the victims. 



  • The MOVE Bombing and the Callous Handling of Black Remains

    by Jessica Parr

    The remains of the victims of the Philadelphia Police Department's bombing of the MOVE organization in 1985, including two children, were acquired by the University of Pennsylvania, stored outside of climate control, passed on to Princeton, and eventually lost, a final indignity to the victims. 



  • What Happens to News When Journalists and Historians Join Forces

    How the Philadelpia Inquirer teamed up with Villanova University’s Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest and the Lenfest Center for Cultural Partnerships to research three issues--infrastructure, immigration, and the opioid crisis--that could benefit from a historical perspective.