Greenbelt Knoll

Philadelphia, PA · est. 2014

Built in 1846–47 beside the Byberry Friends Meeting, Byberry Hall was raised by the renowned African American abolitionist Robert Purvis and others as a place to debate slavery and the great social questions of the day. Its platform welcomed famous reformers, including James and Lucretia Mott and William Lloyd Garrison. Purvis's nearby farm was a regular Underground Railroad station, and he estimated he helped more than 9,000 people escape bondage.

Abington Township, PA · est. 2018

Long before abolition became a mass movement, Benjamin Lay—a Quaker, a dwarf, and a man of ferocious conviction—was denouncing slavery in colonial Pennsylvania. He staged dramatic public protests, boycotted everything made by enslaved labor, and wrote a blistering pamphlet against Quaker slaveholders that got him disowned by his own meeting. He lived simply, reportedly in a cave, and his moral witness helped push Quakers to become the first religious body in America to renounce slavery within their ranks by 1776.

Cheltenham Township, PA · est. 1974

Near here stood "Roadside," the home of Lucretia Mott (1793–1880), a Quaker minister whose moral force helped drive some of the century's great reform movements. A tireless abolitionist, she helped organize the 1848 Seneca Falls convention and championed women's rights, temperance, and peace. Her faith and eloquence made her a leader when few women spoke publicly at all.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 2017

Known as the "Lion of Zion," the Rev. Dr. Leon Howard Sullivan pastored Philadelphia's Zion Baptist Church for 37 years and turned his pulpit into an engine for economic justice. His Selective Patronage Movement — boycotting companies that refused to hire Black workers — opened thousands of jobs nationwide, and his gospel of self-help built lasting institutions to train minority workers. Decades later, his Global Sullivan Principles pressed corporations toward human rights and helped isolate apartheid South Africa, earning him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.