Weekend Edition Sunday is traversing Philadelphia during a month-long series to shine a light on what it means to be an American. During a recent trip, NPR's Liane Hansen spoke with an African-American family whose personal history spans three generations of Philadelphia's history.
The end of the 19th century saw the growth of industry and infrastructure in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Railroad was established in the early 1900s, and by 1908, the first subway trains were rumbling below the city's streets.
It also saw major demographic changes. For decades, African-Americans had been leaving segregated cities in the South for better economic and social opportunities north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Philadelphia — which had the largest free black population in the United States at the time of the Civil War and was the epicenter of the abolitionist movement — became a magnet for African-Americans. Today, they comprise nearly half of the city's population.
Anna Henderson, 108, was part of this "Great Migration." She came to Philadelphia from Georgia with her parents in 1922. When she moved into her neighborhood, "the whole thing was white," she says. There were a "fair few colored in Preston Street, very few … maybe two or three."
This would change as neighborhoods once racially homogenous became a bustling mix of minorities and Europeans immigrants during a wave of immigration in the 1920s.
Many who came to Philadelphia during that period settled in the western part of the city. This included Jewish immigrants who, like blacks, faced discrimination and abuse. These tensions were amplified by growing economic difficulties as the nation settled into the Great Depression.
