1. New York City considered seceding from the United States With Southern states declaring they were seceding from the United States in 1860-61, New York City boldly flirted with the idea as well. New York City did not support abolition of slavery and had strong commercial ties to Southern states. New York City’s mayor told… Continue reading
This past weekend, white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and Klansmen marched in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The images of young white men wielding torches and weapons, attacking peaceful protesters, and chanting their racist, anti-Semitic rhetoric shocked and disgusted the world (with one notable… Continue reading
In 1934, with Philadelphia amidst the Great Depression, a survey of the city’s households found an astonishing number of homes lacked electricity, water, and heat. An estimated 152,022 Philadelphians had no bathing facility, 39,239 people were living without a bathroom, and 28,000 families were sharing single-family dwellings with another family. Two thirds of the city’s… Continue reading
Philadelphia in the 1980s was a city desperate for, yet stubbornly resistant to, change. The election of W. Wilson Goode, Philadelphia’s first African American mayor, had failed to bring the kind of sweeping reforms in which many in the city had hoped. By 1991, Philadelphia had struggled with two decades of job loss, population decline,… Continue reading
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It is a beautifully simple, insightful, and now famous piece of wisdom from George Santayana, an American philosopher and poet, in 1905. With those words Santayana was explaining that the first step in progress was making sure you don’t regress. His argument was simple:… Continue reading
On June 14, more than 25,000 people attended the Philly Pride Parade and Festival; among them were Mayor Michael Nutter, Governor Tom Wolf, and many others. This year marks 50 years since the first public gay rights demonstration in Philadelphia, and 2015’s event was far different from 1965. This 50 year history is the story… Continue reading