A Black Philadelphia Reader

African American Writings About the City of Brotherly Love

Louis J. Parascandola

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780271097312
• eBook ISBN: 9780271098265
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Literature

The relationship between the City of Brotherly Love and its Black residents has been complicated from the city's founding through the present day. A Black Philadelphia Reader traces this complex history in the words of Black writers who were native to, lived in, or had significant connections to the city.

Featuring the works of famous authors—including W. E. B. Du Bois, Harriet Jacobs, Sonia Sanchez and John Edgar Wideman—alongside lesser-known voices, this reader is an immersive and enriching composite portrait of the Black experience in Philadelphia. Through fiction and nonfiction, poetry and prose, readers witness episodes of racial prejudice and gender inequality in areas like public health, housing, education, policing, criminal justice, and public transportation. And yet amid these myriad challenges, the writers convey an enduring faith, a love of family and community, and a hope that Philadelphia will fulfill its promises to its Black citizens.

Thoughtfully introduced and accompanied by notes that contextualize the works and aid readers' comprehension, this book will appeal to a wide audience of Philadelphians and other readers interested in American, African American, and urban studies.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Cato and Petitioners, “Letter of Cato and Petition by ‘The Negroes Who Obtained Freedom by the Late Act,’ ” The Freeman’s Journal (September 21,1781)
• Chapter 2: Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People, During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia in the Year1793; And a Refutation of Some Censures Thrown upon Them in Some Late Publications (1794)
• Chapter 3: Absalom Jones and Others, Petition of the People of Color and Freemen of Philadelphia—Against the Slave Trade to the Coast of Guinea (1799)
• Chapter 4: Alice, from Thomas Isaiah’s Eccentric Biography: Memoirs of Remarkable Female Characters, Ancient and Modern (1804)
• Chapter 5: James Forten, from Letters from a Man of Colour, on a Late Bill Before the Senate of Pennsylvania (1813)
• Chapter 6: James Forten and Russell Parrott, To the Humane and Benevolent Inhabitants of the City and County of Philadelphia, Address Delivered August 10, 1817 (1817)
• Chapter 7: William Whipper, from An Address Delivered in Wesley Church on the Evening of June 12, Before the Colored Reading Society of Philadelphia, for Mental Improvement (1828)
• Chapter 8: Frank J. Webb, from The Garies and Their Friends (1857)
• Chapter 9: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “An Appeal for the Philadelphia Rescuers,”Weekly Anglo-African (June 23, 1860)
• Chapter10: Octavius Catto, Our Alma Mater: An Address Delivered at Concert Hall onthe Occasion of the Twelfth Annual Commencement of the Institute for Colored Youth, May 10th, 1864 (1864)
• Chapter 11: William Still, from A Brief Narrative of the Struggle for the Rights of the Colored People of Philadelphia in the City Railway Cars (1867)
• Chapter 12: William Still, from The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, & c. (1872)
• Chapter 13: Fanny Jackson Coppin, “Christmas Eve Story,” The Christian Recorder (December 1880)
• Chapter 14: Alain Locke, “Hail Philadelphia,” Black Opals (1927)
• Chapter 15: Jessie Fauset, from Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral (1929)
• Chapter 16: William Gardner Smitth from South Street( 1954)
• Chapter 17: David Bradley, from South Street (1975)
• Chapter 18: Joseph Beam, from “Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart” (1986)
• Chapter 19: Sonia Sanchez, “elegy (for MOVE and Philadelphia)” (1987)
• Chapter 20: Becky Birtha, “Route 23: 10th and Bigler to Bethlehem Pike” (1987)
• Chapter 21: Bebe Moore Campbell, from Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad (1989)
• Chapter 22: Elaine Brown, from A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (1992)
• Chapter 23: Alexs D. Pate, from Losing Absalom (1994)
• Chapter 23: Toni Cade Bambara, from “Deep Sight and Rescue Missions” (1996)
• Chapter 24: Diane McKinney-Whetstone, from Tumbling (1996)
• Chapter 24: John Edgar Wideman, from The Cattle Killing (1996)
• Chapter 25: David Bradley, “The Station” (Previously unpublished, 1997)
• Chapter 26: Mumia Abu-Jamal,“A Panther Walks in Philly” (2004)
• Chapter 27: Asali Solomon, “Secret Pool” (2010)
• Chapter 28: Sonia Sanchez, “10 Haiku (for Philadelphia Murals)” (2010)
• Chapter 29: Ayana Mathis, from The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (2012)
• Chapter 30: Ross Gay, “To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian” (2013)
• Chapter 31: Mat Johnson, from Loving Day (2015)
• Chapter 32: Warren Longmire, “Brotherly Love” (2015)
• Chapter 33: Yvonne (Chism-Peace),“4951 Walnut Street” (2019) and from Rosetta on the Bus, “Momma House” (2019)
• Chapter 34: Charles D. Ellison, “Philadelphia, Where Blackness Transcends,”The Root (February 14, 2019)
• Index