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File #: 080772    Version: 0 Name:
Type: Resolution Status: ADOPTED
File created: 10/16/2008 In control: CITY COUNCIL
On agenda: Final action: 10/16/2008
Title: Declaring October 25th as "Dr. W.E.B. DuBois Day."
Sponsors: Councilmember Tasco, Councilmember DiCicco, Councilmember Rizzo, Councilmember Goode, Councilmember Sanchez, Councilmember Greenlee, Councilmember Kenney, Council President Verna, Councilmember Clarke, Councilmember Krajewski, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Miller, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember Jones, Councilmember O'Neill, Councilmember Green
Attachments: 1. Resolution No. 08077200.pdf
Title
Declaring October 25th as "Dr. W.E.B. DuBois Day."
Body
WHEREAS, The Council of the City of Philadelphia is pleased and proud to honor the life and work of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and declares October 25th as "Dr. W.E.B. DuBois Day" in Philadelphia; and

WHEREAS, On October 25th, the City's Mural Arts Program and representatives from the University of Pennsylvania will unveil a new mural, located at 6th and South Streets, dedicated to the life and work of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois; and

WHEREAS, Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois ("Dr. DuBois") was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and received his undergraduate degree from Fisk University and graduate degrees from Harvard University and became one of America's leading scholars and international leaders; and

WHEREAS, Following the jailing of a Black colleague from Harvard (William Monroe Trotter) on trumped-up charges, Dr. DuBois organized a group of 29 men from 14 states into the "Niagara Movement," which three years later merged with other individuals to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ("NAACP"); and

WHEREAS, Dr. DuBois was well known as an author, educator, and founder of the NAACP, one of his seminal works was entitled The Philadelphia Negro, where he was commissioned by the University of Pennsylvania to complete a study on African Americans living in Philadelphia between 7th Street and the Schuylkill River and South Street to Spruce Street; and

WHEREAS, With little assistance from the University, Dr. DuBois conducted an extensive door-to-door survey of the African American population of this neighborhood, and this fairly unusual approach to research made The Philadelphia Negro noteworthy and enabled Dr. DuBois to successfully re-frame the "Negro problem" as the problems that Blacks faced, namely racial discrimination in employment, housing, education, and voting and offered a message about racial inequality and community violence that is still relevan...

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