Voices

Ms. Gwen Moses In the mid 1960′s, as Temple’s actions became more aggressive, residents of a low-income housing development on Norris Street stood together and formed Norris Homes Tenant Council as a means to take action. One of the people active in this council was a resident of the area, Ms. Gwen Moses. Ms. Moses lived in the North Philadelphia area for over 20 years. She was raised in Norris Homes and she speaks fondly of her youth and the neighborhood. “My neighborhood was an excellent community. Everybody knew everybody. We were a close-knit community; we always helped each other out. If anyone was ever having a little trouble making their rent, they wouldn’t ask for money or anything but they would make dinners and the whole neighborhood would support them by buying up all their dinners…we rallied around each other like that.” When she was questioned about whether the area was blighted, unsafe, or unsanitary as Temple University and city officials stated, she huffs indignantly. “That is untrue, that is totally untrue, we were a working-class community. Everyone worked! Well the men anyway. Women mostly stayed home and took care of the house and kids. A few women did a little domestic work and some may have helped their mother or aunt in their beauty salon, but other than that women were home while the men worked. It was different then too, because there weren’t many families without a man in the household. That was rare.And we kept our neighborhoods clean. We had gardens; we swept off our steps and sidewalks everyday. And if your neighbor wasn’t feeling well, you swept off her stoop and sidewalk too. Norris Homes was considered the projects because it’s public housing but it wasn’t like the projects at all. It was a great community; we were tight. People didn’t mind raising their kids there. Norris Homes even had a long waiting list for people to get in there! There was a strong sense of pride that you could almost feel when you came to my neighborhood.There were businesses in the neighborhood. Most of the businesses were factories. There was the Snellingburg factory, and the Bayuk factory which made cigarettes, but Temple took over most of that land. Now that’s where Temple’s Physical Plant is. There was a candy factory, a lamp factory and even an asbestos plant. These are the places that everyone in the community worked. Temple didn’t employ any people in the community. Temple was a place that we always considered out of reach to us. They didn’t offer us any money or scholarships; all the people in the neighborhood who went to college went other places that gave you more. That was when everybody went to black colleges.We didn’t deal with [Temple] much until the expansion. They just started snatching up land. We saw that they were just getting really aggressive and after they moved the people out of 13th Street, we knew that we had to do something, and we formed tenant council.” The council started out with just people in the neighborhood, primarily Norris Homes, but the coalition grew quickly. The movement gained the support of several neighborhood agencies. There were several black churches who became involved. Berean Church, led by Rev. Jerry Cooper, and the Church of the Advocate, led by Paul Washington, were two groups involved. “Oh, the whole community was just up in arms! We were protesting all over the place and we had support from all the agencies and churches. Even some of the students were protesting with us. We were creating a lot of negative press for the university and they just couldn’t have that because that was when Temple was predominantly white and those white people didn’t want to bring their kids up to some school in the city where the black folks was protesting and showing out. The university had to concede and they agreed to go into negations with us.I was on the Charrette negotiating team. I was on the housing committee. Oh it seemed like we negotiated for months and months and months before we could agree on anything. But it was good that we had it because that President was tricky. He’d tell us one thing and then do another before we had that in writing. When the Charrette was done we had an agreement to develop housing in cooperation with the university on the land from Susquehanna Ave. to Diamond St. between 11th and 13th. We got assistance from the Redevelopment Authority and technical support from Temple. We were able to give contracts and jobs to local residents and minorities. It was a great venture. We formed a corporation. Ms. Jerri Williams was the president. We even kicked the recreation department out of our community center so we could plan our own programs. We were really invested in that community.”

copyright © 2003 The Palmer Foundation

Mr. Thomas Anderson, Jr., Assistant Vice President, Office of Community Relations, Temple University Mr. Thomas Anderson has been with the Community Affairs Office at Temple University since 1970 when he was hired to smooth the relationship between Temple University and the North Philadelphia Community members whose homes bordered Temple’s expanding campus.  Mr. Anderson is an African-American man and was never a resident of North Philadelphia but was familiar with the community through his past work on issues of gang violence and education. “I came to Temple at a time that there was still a lot of protesting going on in and around the campus. MOVE was on the west side of Broad, and the Black Panthers were here. I was someone who was always involved in the community and I was involved in Teacher Corps here at Temple, which was a community based education program. When they developed this position, I was urged to apply for it and I got it over five other candidates, some with advanced degrees.” When asked what he does in his position at Temple, Mr. Anderson will first spread his arms across the span of his office and say, “Just look around.” The walls are covered with plaques, pictures, and honors: the YMCA Man of the Year, awards from the United Way, several thank you letters and plaques from community agencies, accolades from the University for Service, and a picture of him shaking hands with Bill Cosby. Mr. Anderson says he goes out into the community as a representative for the University with ideas and programs. His job is to sell this to the community. Mr. Anderson says he has been successful in this because he has gained credibility and people know that his word is his bond. He says, “If I can do it, it will get done. If I can’t do it, I’ll tell you. I have my instructions and limitation from administration before I even come to the table, and I make that clear.”When asked about the continued distrust and dissatisfaction that some community residents feel toward Temple University, he simply says, “you can’t satisfy all the people all the time.” Then he follows up and says that Temple is doing a lot for the North Philadelphia community. Mr. Anderson shows a directory of programs from 1992-1993 that were offered by the Office of Community Relations.When asked about the current land disputes, he says that when the Apollo was built, twenty scholarships were offered to North Philadelphia students in exchange for that land. However, the twenty scholarships were five scholarships per year over a four-year period, and they were only partial scholarships. Furthermore, the program was not reaching its potential as only three North Philadelphia residents over the past two years had been determined eligible for entrance into Temple, which had recently raised its academic standards for admission.Mr. Anderson also talked about some of the land use agreements made in the 1970 Charrette:  “The community was given plots of land after that agreement and much of it was not developed. We ask for it back if they don’t plan to develop it. The community can give it back or we swap other land that we have for the land we want.” Mr. Anderson ended the interview with a statement about his thoughts on the continued growth of Temple as he looked out of his office window that overlooked Progress Plaza shopping center: “You know this end of Broad is going to be considered the Northern Avenue of the Arts, and it has to look the part. I’m on the board of the Zion Trust (which owns Progress Plaza) and we’re planning on redeveloping the whole center. We’re building a new 70,000 square foot grocery store and we’re planning all new shops.” What about the current shop owners and businesses? “Well, we’re talking much more square footage and much higher rent costs. Some of the businesses there now probably won’t be able to afford it.“It will not only be the small businesses and street vendors who may experience the negative impact of Temple University’s plan to build a new mall. The community that borders the Plaza and the OIC building is in Yorktown. This stable community is thirty-five years old. The residents are middle class African-Americans. Community members are not happy about the increased traffic that this mall will bring to their community. They are especially not happy with Temple’s plans to replace the OIC building with a parking garage that will meet anticipated parking demands. When Mr. Anderson was asked about the community’s reaction, he told the interviewer that Temple University is not able to please everyone. Eloise Edmonds – Resident of North Philadelphia and supporter of Temple. Ms. Edmonds is a resident of the North Philadelphia community. She has been living there for most of her life. She does believe that Temple University has had a major economic impact. “It has created jobs for over 35,000 people and it keeps growing because there are more projects meaning more employment.”She believes that the problems with the community and Temple University have lessened. They are creating more dormitories for more students to live on campus…” this will help bring more restaurants and business to our area.” She said that the growth of Temple University will help the Avenue of the Arts. “There are many valuable places in the Avenue of the Arts such as the Wagner Science Center, the African American Law Museum, The Legendary Blue Horizon, Freedom Theatre, The Vine Lorraine Hotel…this could be improved to expand multicultural tourism. Because there are so many students going to Temple University, there is a need for entertainment venues on this end of the city.” Ms. Edmonds also stated that Temple University needs to work closely with the nonprofit organizations to help improve the area. “If there is a continuation of a peaceful coexistence, Temple University will be a valuable asset.” Something that she believed was a negative from Temple was how students parked anywhere and that Temple needs to work with the community to build parking spaces for its students. Ms. Edmonds also said that Temple University needs to be more understanding of the community’s needs. They need to do more planning with the community. The community  needs to be more involved.

Yvonne Blake: Resident of North Philadelphia for 21 years Ms. Blake was a resident of the North Philadelphia community for the first 21 years of her life. She now resides in another section of the city but she remembers her life in North Philadelphia. She remembers that the area was full of middle class hardowrking people who took pride in what they did. The North Philadelphia community was a diverse one with people from many different backgrounds. “There were Irish, Italian, African American, Hispanic, Asian, you name it, and we all came from hard working families. We all lived in different sections of North Philadelphia, but we all had one thing in common and that was that we all came from middle class hard working families. What happened to those families was that as we (the children) grew up, we went to college and graduated and we become successfula nd moved outside of the city to Mt. Airy, Germantown and other places with our new families. Our ‘hard-working middle class parents’ stayed in North Philadelphia. As our parents started dying, we didn’t want to move back so we either sold our houses or rented them out or the houses just deteriorated and were not taken care of.” “Temple University saw this as an opportunity so that they did was they would buy these houses, sit on it for a while let them deteriorate even more and then they would rebuild.” Temple looked good tot he community because it seemed like they were improving the conditions of North Philadelphia.Ms. Blake believes that Temple needs to admit that they did something wrong but alos they need to work with the community to help improve it. She believes that Temple had no consideration at all to the community. “There needs to be a partnership to help improve this area and I know its going to be hard…I mean look at Penn and the whole Black Bottom community.” I found it interesting that Ms. Blake knew a lot about the Black Bottom community, she said that she has followed it throughout her years because she saw the similarity with Temple and the North Philadelphia community. (Interview by Denise Velez)

Ed Shockley–Writer, teacher and director Ed Shockley is an African-American male who grew up in south Philadelphia in the 1950s and 1960s. /his great aunt, helen Page, and her brother were the first african Americans to move into the neighborhood in Nicetown on 18th and Erie in the 1930s. Although Mr. Shockley did not live with his aunt and uncle in North Philadelphia, he spent many summers with them and spent many hours on Temple’s campus as an actor, student, and teacher. He was a member of the Bushfire Theater group on Temple’s campus in the 1970s, received his Masters in fine Arts from the university, and later taught at Temple. Mr. Shockley now lives in the house on 18th and Erie and speaks about his experience with Temple University’s expansion into his neighborhood. Mr. Shockley describes the location of his house as 1/4 block from where Temple University is looking to expand. He believes that the University’s primary tactic is the diminshment of services. He stated that the University, in collaboration wit hother city departments, work to increasingly reduce services in the neighborhoods around Temple in hopes of increasing residents’ frustation and prompting their decision to abandon their neighborhoods and home. Individuals who have the means to leave often do move to neighborhoods that are more supportive environments.Ed Shockley highlights the diminshing services when he talked about the present issue with supermarkets in North Philadelphia. For his community, there were two supermarkets: 13th and Erie and 20th and Erie. Now, neither of these two exist. They have been replaced by a Pathmark supermarket that is not convenient for residents who must rely on public transportation. Where residents were able to shop closer to their homes at supermarkets that were within walking distance, now thet must navigate the public transportation system with groceries. Mr. Shockley’s personal experience with te Office of License and Inspection was a frustratingone. The house that joined his is and abondoned and has been for several years. He has gone through the propoer channels several times and only recently someone was sent out to mark it for demolition. He hopes that it will not be another several years before that building is taken down. Before Temple University built its sport complex, the Apollo, it promised neighborhood vendors and the community that the new building would bring business to North Philadelphia and that the neighborhood would benefit from the increased business. The Apollo was built with its own food court and the neighborhood vendors no longer have a venue. Not only are these vendors benefiting from the Abollo’s construction, they are being hurt by it. They lost a place of business on one of the busiest streets in Philadelphia and lost many of their customers. Mr. Shockley made a very interesting observation about Temple University’s understanding of its relationship with North Philadelphia. He describes the raised glass towers that sit on two of Temple’s borders. These towers house guards who monitor activities in areas around Temple. Mr Shockley describes them as prison guard towers. Also, former Chief of Police for the City of Philadelphi is now head of security at Temple University. Guard towers and the former Chief of Police speak clearly to Temple feeling unsafe and insecure in North Philadelphia. Members of the community are frustrated and angry with Temple unwittingly creating a police state. As a child, when visiting his aunt and uncle, Mr. Shockley remembers no vacant properties. He remembers playing with children on the block and he remembers a strong cohesive block with an equally strong block association. His aunt had even served as president of the association. The block today has none of the same vitality and commitment. There are eight abandoned houses, most from the elderly dying andchildren deciding not to occupy th ehouse. The neighborhood has fewer children; when they first moved to the house, Mr. Shockley’s 7 year-old son could not find a playmate on the block. There is no longer a block association. Mr. Shockley, with the help of a neighbor, tried to resurrect this association but was unsuccessful. Mr. Shockley also voiced his frustrations with his block and with North Philadelphia. His wife, who lived most of her life in urban communities, also wants to leave. It is always tempting to move to a community in which services support and nurture the community members. There is always the question of whether they should stay or go. However, he is commited to the community and hopes to give the resurrection of the block association one more start.

Jill Lesnee – Student, Senior at Temple University Jill is a senior at the Temple University and has been a resident of North Philadelphia for four years now. She is very active in the Temple Community. She has played four years of varsity Lacrosse and has been active in many student organizations. She lived on campus housing for the first two years at Temple and her last two years she moved to the Fairmount section because it was “safer.” She believes that Temple is an asset in the community and has been improving the community over time. Ms. Lesnee stated that there are a lot of that Temple has created for the people of the North Philadelphia community. She thinks that the North Philadelphia community and Temple are working together. When I asked her if she actually did go out in the community and talked to the people and if she went out to restaurants in the Temple community, she said that she usually never did because it was too dangerous. She always went out to the “nicer” sections of the city. She has been involved in community service projects but none that served North Philadelphia and she found that kind of odd since Temple is in North Philadelphia. After talking to Ms. Lesnee for awhile, she did believe that Temple University needs to be more supportive of the North Philadelphia Community and that it is important that both sides are heard. She said that it was a shame that she is a Senior and that if she would have known of all the hardships that Temple has put the North Philadelphia community through, she would have been more involved. She said that she really can’t do anything now since she’s moving back home to New York, she hopes that Temple will do something about this. (Interview by Denise Velez)

copyright © 2003 The Palmer Foundation