Project Overview
THE WARD is a research, teaching, and public history project dedicated to sharing the timeless lessons about racism and the role of research in affecting social change from W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1899 book, The Philadelphia Negro.
Students from Masterman High School help paint the undercoat for the mural of Du Bois, “Mapping Courage,” at 6th and South Streets, in April 2008.
Du Bois moved to Philadelphia in 1896 to undertake a study of blacks living in the Seventh Ward, then the heart of Philadelphia’s vibrant and economically diverse black community. The result of his 18 months of intense reading, observing, listening, and surveying was published in 1899 by the University of Pennsylvania. Du Bois was arguably one of the best educated men in the United States at the time and went on to be one of the greatest intellectuals and civil rights leaders of the 20th century. However, The Philadelphia Negro received little attention then and continues to be under-appreciated.
Using new technologies and old to bring this classic study to life, THE WARD seeks to engage high school students and others in an honest dialog about how race and racism continue to shape our lives, today. Along the way, we seek to teach a broad audience about Du Bois’ major contributions to social science research and civil rights and draw attention to Philadelphia’s rich history and collection of primary source documents. Du Bois was disappointed that The Philadelphia Negro—“that fat volume that no one reads”—did not have more impact on leaders of his day. Through THE WARD, we seek to continue Du Bois’ unfinished business of promoting the full humanity of all people and using surveys, maps, statistics, discussion, video, story-telling, art, and role-playing as tools for challenging perceptions about race and racism and reshaping the world around us.
Partnership Among Penn Colleagues
Stephanie Boddie and Amy Hillier pose at the Institute for Colored Youth at 9th and Bainbridge Streets during a Seventh Ward walking tour.
As a doctoral student at Penn’s School of Social Work, Amy Hillier enrolled in an urban ethnography course with sociologist Elijah Anderson where she read The Philadelphia Negro for the first time. The book, and field trip led by Professor Anderson, made a lasting impression on her, in part because she was living in the Seventh Ward at the time. The maps Du Bois included were especially inspiring because of her recent introduction to geographic information systems (GIS) software. She started what became THE WARD in 2004 to demonstrate the power of historical GIS to tell stories and facilitate discoveries.
Amy Hillier and Stephanie Boddie were classmates in graduate school at Penn and maintained a strong friendship and interest in each other’s scholarship. When Dr. Boddie was collecting oral histories from long-time members of Tindley Temple United Methodist Church, located just outside the Seventh Ward; they decided to combine efforts. In addition to holding Du Bois in very high regard, they are both committed to engaging local residents and students of all ages in their work. More than 50 students, from high school to doctoral students, have contributed through archival data collection, interviews, map-making, and design to the project over the past 20 years.
Stephanie Clintonia Boddie
Stephanie Clintonia Boddie is an Associate Professor of Church and Community Ministries at Baylor University in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work with affiliations in the George W. Truett Theological Seminary and the School of Education. She is a native of Baltimore but has spent more of her adult life in Philadelphia than any other city. She came to love Philadelphia while serving as a caseworker for a foster care and adoption agency. She planned to leave Philadelphia to attend graduate school in Washington, DC. Instead, she stayed and attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2002.
During her graduate studies, she discovered W. E.B. Du Bois while studying Black churches and their social service provision. During this time, she began reading The Philadelphia Negro and The Negro Church. In 2012, she had the opportunity to revisit the work of Du Bois, particularly to interact with the churches he studied. Her career has primarily focused on the study of faith-based social services and congregations, particularly Black churches. She has been particularly interested in the entrepreneurial approaches to food insecurity, wealth, health, and race relations. More recently, she has expanded her research to engage communities promoting food security, sustainable agriculture, and climate resilience in Waco. She enjoys singing, cooking, gardening, and traveling.
Amy Hillier
Amy Hillier (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A white woman from New Hampshire who attended Middlebury College, she fell in love with Philadelphia, and the Seventh Ward, as a graduate social work student at Penn between 1995 and 2001.
For the first twenty years of her academic career, her research focused on applications of geographic information systems (GIS) in urban history and social sciences. Her dissertation and post-doctoral research reconsidered the role of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation’s residential security maps on mortgage redlining. As a postdoc, she also studied affordable housing in Philadelphia alongside a coalition of housing advocates. She then transitioned to studying access to healthful foods and supermarkets, physical activity and park use, and exposure to outdoor advertising, all of which used GIS and spatial statistical analysis.
Beginning in 2017, she shifted to studying transgender children and their families, using participatory and qualitative methods. She lives in West Philadelphia with her wife, two children, and dog. She loves biking around Philadelphia, playing in Clark Park with her dog, crafting, and hanging out with neighbors.
