This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. It is the third story in a three-part series about the roots and realities of gun violence in Black America. You can read the first installments at thetrace.org. Sign up for The Trace newsletters here. Walter Palmer, 90, vividly
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When we live in a world where we feel we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, we succumb to a spiritual plague. It erodes the fabric of cooperation and equality, as well as the symbiosis that allows for us to have safe, healthy living environments. When we look at those trying to dismantle
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On February 26, United Nations human rights experts released a statement calling for reform in American policing. Their primary example for the necessity of reform was the Philadelphia Police Department. The statement came from the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, which is a group of independent experts with mandates to report and advise
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Eggplant and beets are not the kinds of vegetables Tanisha Muse typically buys, but through a program offering free produce from Sanctuary Farm in North Philly, they are now part of her family’s diet. “It’s still not my first thought to get beets at the supermarket,” says Muse, a West Philly resident. “That might never
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On May 19, 1925, a boy named Malcolm Little was born. His father would eventually be murdered by a white supremacist organization called the Black Legion. His mother would later suffer a nervous breakdown following her husband’s murder, thus causing Little to be sent into the foster care system. After getting into drug dealing and
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When Jerome Shabazz started Overbrook Environmental Education Center (OEEC) in 2002, he set about transforming a former EPA brownfield site into a community space where the neighborhood could connect with nature. Today, it’s a verdant oasis on Lancaster Avenue’s commercial corridor. “It’s the intersection of environment, public health and community,” Shabazz says. But OEEC doesn’t
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On October 12, Indigenous People’s Day, radio station WURD (96.1 FM/900 AM) held an on-air Environmental Justice Summit in partnership with Bartram’s Garden and From the Source Reporting Collaborative. Part of the station’s EcoWURD initiative, the day-long summit included speakers and panels discussing high-level topics such as leadership in environmental justice as well as grassroots
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In the fight against the spread of COVID-19, Philadelphia has employed hotels as COVID Prevention Spaces to house homeless, elderly and health-compromised populations. One such space, the Holiday Inn Express at 13th and Walnut streets, is scheduled to cease providing that service today. The hotel has served as a shelter for the homeless since April.
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Nafis Middleton, a local rapper and anti-violence activist known as Fis Banga, was detained on Tuesday, December 15, by Philadelphia police from the 35th District in what he describes as “a traffic ticket gone wrong.” Middleton, 27, has been writing and producing anti-violence skits and raps for more than five years, but this week he
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David Rose—or Javat Agni, his Indigenous name—wasn’t aware of Germantown’s history until graduate school. As a descendent of the Cheraw people (aka Saura) of the Sauratown Mountains, he knew of the horrors settlers brought upon Indigenous peoples. “My whole life, growing up, we didn’t hear all the best stories about the settler states. We [heard]
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They needed somewhere to go. In March 2020, the City of Philadelphia began to disperse the homeless population that had settled around the Pennsylvania Convention Center, citing fears of a COVID-19 outbreak. Then in May, the city cleared the Philadelphia International Airport of its homeless population as well. In total, 51 people were cleared from
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