Miracle in North Philadelphia by Margaret Hope Bacon

~ww?J. ~"-¥'<1· s~~r ~~,;;} Miracle in North Philadelphia by Margaret Hope Bacon n land once given to the Relig had seemed in the early 1980s ious Sociery of Friends by the right action, as Friends OGeorge Fox sits the Fair Hill had long since moved away Burial Ground in North Philadelphia. from the neighborhood, and Only a few years ago it appeared aban the minister was using the doned, a tangle of weeds, discarded tires, meetinghouse as a church. trash, and garbage, surrounded by a gap There had been a misunder toothed fence and gutted sidewalks, a standing about the mainte menace to an already decaying neigh nance of the burial ground borhood. On its northeast corner drug however, and it had begun to dealers gathered like flies, while their cli slide into decay. LIFE Maga ents used the burial ground to shoot up. zine wrote an article about Neighborhood children were kept in North Philadelphia in which doors to avoid the flying bullets of gang it described the burial ground warfare. as a site for drug dealing, rape, Today, the burial ground has been and satanic rites, a menace to returned to its former state of sereniry the neighborhood, and the and beauty, the drug dealers are gone, the Philadelphia Inquirer picked sidewalks have been restored, and funds up the story. A few neighbors are being raised to replace the stolen sec decided to band together and tions ofthe fence. Neighbors and children come to Friends Center at from a nearby school work with Quaker 15th and Cherry Streets to volunteers from all over to plant flowers. ask ifsomething could not be Tourists can again visit the historic area done. This initiative, coming with impunity. The United States Park at the same time as the ques- Service has recently placed the burial ground on the National Register of His tatives from all the meetings of the quar toric Places. ter, and funds were solicited from those The change seems miraculous, and per meetings and various Quaker foundations haps it is. But behind it lies the indomi to repurchase the burial ground. Negotia table spirit of a woman who was buried tion with the owner resulted in the trans here over 100 years ago. Lucretia Coffin fer of ownership back into Quaker hands Mott spent a long lifetime fighting for in the spring of 1993. better conditions for blacks, women, Na Then began a cleanup process with tive Americans, and the working classes. out precedent. Three times a year, in When it was suggested in the 1980s that April, July, and October, Friends have her grave be moved downtown to a better gathered from far and near to help restore neighborhood, those tuned in to her spirit the burial ground. Some meetings choose knew she would bristle at the mere idea. one cleanup a year as a meeting event Instead, it seemed clear that she would and bring many volunteers to help. want her admirers to do something about Friends schools have also sent squadrons the Fair Hill neighborhood itself And armed with rakes and shovels. A busload although it seemed like an effort doomed from New Garden Friends School in to failure, a small group met to consider North Carolina put in a day of hard what they could possibly do. work. Swarthmore College has sent vol The first step was to buy back the unteers. burial ground, which had been sold to a At first, volunteers picked up--with local minister. Selling the burial ground tion of moving the Mott grave, galvanized great care-buckets full of hypodermic Margaret Hope Bacon, a member of Central the. small group of interested Friends to needles. There were also 'dumpsters full Philddelphia {Pa.) Meeting, is the author often acuon. of trash, including an abandoned and books on Quaker history and biography. She is A Fair Hill Burial Ground Corpora rusted car. Because the grave stones are at work with research on African American tion was formed under Philadelphia small, neighbors had thought it was a pet Friends. Quarterly Meeting, made up of represen- cemetery and had contributed a few dead 16 March 1999 FRIENDS JOURNAL Before, during, and after: Volunteers transform the Falrhlll Burial Ground from a tangled jungle to an orderly resting place. their primary concern was that the Fair Hill Burial Ground be restored to its former state ofbeauty. Meanwhile a group of neighbors took heart and organized a garden and playground for the children on nearby Hutchinson Street. The miracle was made up ofa number ofs mall acts of courage and devotion, by those determined to see what love can do. While the spirit of Lucretia Mott has been the guiding force in the restoration of the Burial Ground, there have been many others to inspire the dogs and cats to the trash volunteers, going back over piles. Weeds and weed trees 300 years. William Penn him had grown up and had to selfgave George Fox the land be cut down; existing trees in the "liberties" where Fair were pruned. While vol Hill Burial Ground now sits. unteers worked on one side Isaac Norris went to the meet of the fence, the drug deal ing that once was held there. ers still plied their trade on Revolutionary soldiers were the other. Sometimes shots cared for in the meetinghouse, rang out, and the volun long since torn down, to the teers wondered ifthey were south of the burial ground. risking their lives. In 1843, when the present But slowly, the miracle burial ground was laid out to began to happen. Former accommodate the Hicksite drug addicts in a local re meetings in the city, many covery program were en Friends were concerned to rid gaged to keep the trash the nation ofslavery. The radi down from week to week. cals among them formed a A teacher from the Julia de network around James and Burgos Middle School be Lucretia Mott, who were came interested and friends and colleagues ofWtl brought a class working on liam Lloyd Garrison. James environmental issues to Mott was also a chief help with the cleanup and fundraiser for the new burial planting. Later they de ground. As a result some cided to plant a tree farm members of the Garrisonian and to act out a play in Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery which James and Lucrecia Society were buried at Fair Mott come back from Hill cemetery. Among them heaven to confront the are Sarah Pugh and Abigail president and demand an Kimber, school teachers who end to the drug trade. The accompanied Lucrecia Mott Philadelphia district attor to London to attend the ney became one ofthe vol World Anti-Slavery Conven unteers. The Mural Arts tion in 1840. Excluded be Program painted a neighboring wall with ter from a Birmingham Jail. cause of their gender, they supported a picture of Mott and of others who had Neighbors were consulted in the plan Lucretia Mott and the young wife of a participated in the antislavery campaign, ning of the restoration. While they would delegate, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, when as well as Barbara Moffett of the AFSC like to see the day when the neighbor they agreed to return to the United States who published Marcin Luther King's Let- hood can use the gardens for special events, to work for women's rights. FRIENDS J OURNAL March 1999 17 Other activists buried at Fair Hill in clude Edward M. Davis, the Motts' son in-law, who gave his farm for the training of the first all-black U. S. army regiment, and Robert Purvis, an African American who founded the first underground rail road in the Philadelphia area. Not a Friend, though a friend of Friends, Purvis was married first to Harriet Forten, daugh ter ofthe famous James Forten, sailmaker. H e probably bought a family lot at Fair Hill because of his friendship with the Motts. Harriet was also an activist, serving with the interracial Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. She along with a Badland's Blues ~·~t~. P. by Signe Wilkinson ~ 'CfJ uakers don't have a clue what result, to miss the point. This dawned on had Quakerism. Our cheerful platitudes Q living in the city of brotherly me at one of our clean-ups when, with about peace meant nothing at the corner love's most dangerous zip code is like. drug dealers lining the outside fence, a well of Ninth and Indiana. Or, perhaps they Thirty some murders a year. Gunfire intentioned Quaker volunteer from the might have, but no one from any Quaker every night. Drugs everywhere. While suburbs came up to a Philadelphia City organization was out standing among the working on the Fair Hill Burial councilman who was working with us for well-armed young men on that desperate Ground has brought many satisfac the morning and thanked him for his vote stretch telling the dealers that peace was tions over the years, it has also brought in support of a civilian review board of the way. realizations about how little Friends oversight for the Philadelphia police. Finally, someone did intervene. Last culture has to say to residents of our What a suburban Quaker wanted was fall, the Philadelphia police, under the violent inner-cities. In particular it a civilian review board. What our Fair supervision ofa new chieffrom New York makes one rethink calcified views Hill neighbors had actually wanted was City, set up an intermittent roadblock on about peace, public safety, and police. the National Guard. the northeast corner ofour burial ground. At our project, we have had our If society wasn't going to give them The consistent presence ofcivilization has brushes with the gun-laden society of police or military protection, several neigh cut the violence and given the neighbors the surrounding streets, which are nick bors suggested that we just give them the respite from the pushers who, until re named "the badlands." A bus that had weapons and they could take out the "bad cently, lined the entire north side of the carried Guilford College volunteers guys." As to what we could do to make burial ground fence.

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