A block of Market Street was renamed on Wednesday in recognition of Black Bottom, a predominantly Black neighborhood that developers demolished in the 1960s to expand Penn\u2019s campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An Oct. 7 ceremony \u2014\u00a0led by Philadelphia City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents University City \u2014 formally introduced the block\u2019s new name: Walt Palmer-Black Bottom Way. Walter Palmer, who grew up in the neighborhood, now lectures at the School of Social Policy & Practice and teaches a course about the area\u2019s history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event was held at 3675 Market St., where Palmer once lived with his 12 siblings, his mother, and his stepfather. The formal renaming comes after the City Council voted<\/a> to recognize Black Bottom by its original name last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Black Bottom was a vibrant Black community in West Philadelphia – until the City, Penn, and other institutions razed it to make way for campus expansion during urban renewal,\u201d Gauthier wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n The area known as Black Bottom included much of Penn\u2019s campus, roughly between 32nd and 40th streets east to west, and University and Lancaster avenues north to south. Once a flourishing neighborhood<\/a> established as early as the 1840s, it was cleared to make space for University infrastructure. As a result, thousands of Black residents were displaced.<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis celebration is not only for Walt Palmer, but for the many residents, past and present, who lived in this area,\u201d one speaker said at the event. \u201cThis street sign will always be here, proudly standing for you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When the city demolished Black Bottom, Palmer helped orchestrate<\/a> an agreement to ensure the community could be involved in future land-use decisions. In 2022, members of the neighborhood circulated a petition<\/a> demanding reparations for former Black Bottom residents and their descendants.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city didn\u2019t care,\u201d Palmer said in a 2024 interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. \u201c[Penn] had the backing of the courts, city council, the state legislature, and the land authorities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Palmer went on to found The W. D. Palmer Foundation, an organization dedicated to \u201cadvocating for at-risk communities, providing leadership education and training, and promoting anti-racism.\u201d He additionally founded SP2\u2019s Center on American Racism and Social Justice, and has taught courses on American racism and social change for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the event, visual and cultural historian Jasmine Cobb said Palmer has \u201cfought against segregation\u201d throughout his life. She highlighted his commitment to improving educational access for Black communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 1955, Cobb said, Palmer established the Black People\u2019s University of Philadelphia and began developing what became the \u201cfoundation of research and training\u201d on slavery, race, and racism.<\/p>\n \u201cFor decades, he used education to empower teachers, mentor communities, and younger students and others who understand the history of slavery, racism, and gender, and more importantly, to develop resilience, persistence, and self-determination,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Palmer is a \u201ctorchbearer for the Black Bottom,\u201d Gauthier said at the event. She recalled interactions with Palmer a few years back, when he was protesting the clearing of University City Townhomes \u2014 a low-income housing development built on the site where Black Bottom stood.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPalmer was standing on the corner of 48th and Market streets with a mic in his hand, explaining how the planned destruction of the townhomes was the second generation of top-down community erasure,\u201d Gauthier said. \u201cTo see it cleared 40 years later shows us that this pattern is real, and it\u2019s only going to keep repeating itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Gauthier said it was important to continue acknowledging past harms, and called for a \u201ctough conversation about what it means for government and institutions to own, acknowledge, and account for the harm that they inflict.\u201d Institutions \u2014 such as Penn \u2014 have continued to benefit from this harm which \u201centitles its community members and descendants not just to recognition but to reparation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Currently, Penn archaeology students are working<\/a> with local volunteers to excavate the former West Philadelphia neighborhood. Undergraduates are involved in this project through the course \u2014 \u201cArchaeology in the City of Brotherly Love\u201d \u2014 taught by Penn anthropology professor Megan Kassabaum.<\/p>\n Senior reporter Lavanya Mani covers legal affairs and can be reached at mani@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies comparative literature. Follow her on X @LavanyaMani_<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A block of Market Street was renamed on Wednesday in recognition of Black Bottom, a predominantly Black neighborhood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-302950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}