Why were Harrisburg black neighborhoods demolished and what’s being done in remembrance of them?

• Aniya Faulcon
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  Aniya Faulcon is The Spark Host/Producer for WITF. She has a passion for shining a light on unique people, experiences, and perspectives within the community.
  
  Previously she worked as the People and Social Trends Reporter/Video Anchor for LancasterOnline | LNPNews. During her time there, she created video packages, provided Facebook Live coverage at community events, and wrote data-driven stories with census data and feature stories on local leaders, non-profit organizations, events, and people with unique talents and experiences within Lancaster County.
  
  Aniya also worked at WMAR ABC 2 News as a Sales Assistant and at the AFRO American Newspapers as an Executive Assistant and Media correspondent. Aniya interned at WEAA Gospel Grace 88.9 and worked at her alma mater’s radio station, WWPJ at Point Park University, where she gained skills and a passion for radio.
  
  Aniya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Baltimore School for the arts for high school with a concentration in acting. She continued to hone her skills and passion for storytelling and later graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Broadcast Reporting. Aniya is eager to continue her journey with storytelling in her role with WITF, as she aims to shed a light on real people and real stories within Pennsylvania in a variety of mediums.

 Harrisburg Historic Association

In the Old Eighth Ward and the Seventh Ward of Harrisburg, thousands of primarily black homes and hundreds of Black-owned businesses were demolished, wiping out connections to a community that thrived during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The demolitions within the Old Eighth Ward took place as Pennsylvania’s government expanded into what’s now known as the Capitol Complex. The Seventh Ward was demolished due to urban renewal activity, to make way for high-rise buildings and garden apartments.

In tribute to the lost neighborhoods, the Harrisburg Historic Association created an exhibit called “Remembering Harrisburg’s Vanished African-American Neighborhoods”. The exhibit shows the historic photography, atlases, maps of buildings, landmarks and people who lived in the Eighth and Seventh Ward. 3D technology is used to show the buildings that exist now, in those neighborhoods, and what existed in the past.

Caleb Jackson Jr., representative for the Historic Harrisburg Association and former resident of one of the vanished Harrisburg black neighborhoods, said unfortunately compensation wasn’t given to those who lost their homes because most residents didn’t own the properties they lived in. Owners of homes, churches and businesses that were required to move due to the demolitions were compensated for their property.

“You could imagine a neighborhood that loses nine hundred houses and the people have to move; their whole way of life changes because in a neighborhood  you have a neighborhood lifestyle and that’s lost,” Caleb said. “So you have to go to another neighborhood and establish a new neighborhood lifestyle, and that’s hard for some people to do.”

Jeb Stuart, preservation advisor for the Historic Harrisburg Association said, The Commonwealth Monument was created in remembrance of the Old Eighth Ward. It’s located on the Capitol grounds on Walnut St. in Harrisburg and consists of a 3D model of the Old Eighth Ward in the 1880s and four statues of four significant black people in Harrisburg, T. Morris Chester, William Howard de, Frances Ellen Harper and Jacob Compton.

Cole Goodman, Harrisburg native and global outreach ambassador for the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg, said the Harrisburg Historic Association exhibit is important because the next generation of black Harrisburg residents can see where they came from to reach ahead to where they’re going.

“I coached soccer in the city and after talking to Mr. Caleb and Jeb, I went to some of our high school boys and I asked them, ‘Do you know what the Jackson house is?’ ‘Do you know what the eighth word was?’ And almost all of them said, I have no idea,” Goodman said. “But there was a want and a vigor to learn about it. So we will be bringing our boys (to the exhibit). I want to say that this is a rallying cry that everyone needs to go and see this exhibit because you can’t know your future if you don’t understand this.”

The exhibit is being held at the Historic Harrisburg Association at 1230 N Third St. in Harrisburg.