Philadelphia’s Black History Icons

Posted by The Philadelphia Citizen on February 22, 2022

Philadelphia boasts one of the most impressive Black histories in the country thanks to a host of incredible African American people who lived here and changed the world by making significant—and ground-breaking—impacts in the fields of science, architecture, art, music, medicine and astronomy.

A few years ago, we tapped former NBA great Charles Barkley to spotlight just 28 of those individuals, many of whom didn’t make it into the history books or even the newspapers of their time. The idea stemmed from Barkley’s experience talking to high schoolers throughout his career and finding that too many Black students had ambitions to be either rappers or NBA players.

As he put it to them: That’s not going to happen. None of this is going to change without role models showing another path.

Read the mini-biographies of:

  • Julian Francis Abele
  • Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
  • Richard Allen
  • Caroline Still Anderson
  • And more…

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