OUR "GENTRIFICATION" ISSUES.
Relative to "gentrification" issues, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the vicinity of Mother Bethel AME Church at 6th and Lombard Streets, in 1999, I was surprised to see how white , how "gentrified" that epic 18th century black neighborhood had become! The site of first AME Church hardly had any parking spaces, except right beside the church itself! What would Bishop Richard Allen have thought of that?
Bishop Allen's remains are interred in Bethel's church's basement, with his wife's, and Daniel Coker's of Baltimore, Maryland. Rev. Coker had declined his own election as the church's first bishop in favor of Bishop Richard Allen in 1816.
In Washington, D.C. f/ka "chocolate city," I wish we activist-students had had the requisite consciousness to buy up those dilapidated properties, all around Howard U., back in the 1970s! But we did not know! Could not even appreciate where we were nor what we had ! Nor,apparently, could the non-students, whether Howard affiliated or community folk!
OUR "GENTRIFICATION" ISSUES.
Relative to "gentrification" issues, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the vicinity of Mother Bethel AME Church at 6th and Lombard Streets, in 1999, I was surprised to see how white , how "gentrified" that epic 18th century black neighborhood had become! The site of first AME Church hardly had any parking spaces, except right beside the church itself! What would Bishop Richard Allen have thought of that?
Bishop Allen's remains are interred in Bethel's church's basement, with his wife's, and Daniel Coker's of Baltimore, Maryland. Rev. Coker had declined his own election as the church's first bishop in favor of Bishop Richard Allen in 1816.
In Washington, D.C. f/ka "chocolate city," I wish we activist-students had had the requisite consciousness to buy up those dilapidated properties, all around Howard U., back in the 1970s! But we did not know! Could not even appreciate where we were nor what we had ! Nor,apparently, could the non-students, whether Howard affiliated or community folk!
