Martin Luther King, Jr.

Chester, PA · est. 1984

Before he became the towering figure of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. spent three formative years in the Chester area as a divinity student, mentored by the Rev. J. Pius Barbour and graduating from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951. Here he honed the theology and preaching that would carry him to national leadership. A little over a decade later he helped lead the 1963 March on Washington and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Upper Darby, PA · est. 2007

Thomas Garrett was born at Riverview in Delaware County and became one of the most fearless conductors on the Underground Railroad. A devout Quaker who moved to Wilmington in 1822, he funneled freedom seekers northward to family properties, working alongside Harriet Tubman and William Still. Though convicted and heavily fined under the fugitive slave laws, he never relented—by his own account aiding some 2,700 people on their journey out of slavery.

Yeadon, PA · est. 2006

From 1910 to 1932, the Hilldale Athletic Club played its home games here at Hilldale Park, becoming one of the powerhouse franchises of Black baseball. Known as the Darby Daisies, the club won three Eastern Colored League pennants and captured the 1925 Negro League World Series. Its rosters read like a Hall of Fame ballot, featuring Pop Lloyd, Judy Johnson, Oscar Charleston, and Biz Mackey, while owner Ed Bolden helped organize the Eastern Colored League itself.

Yeadon, PA · est. 2021

In 1959, after three Black families were turned away from a local swim club in the Philadelphia suburb of Yeadon, they refused to accept exclusion and pooled community resources to buy land and build their own. The result, the Nile Swim Club, became the first private swim club in the nation owned and operated by African Americans. In an era when public and private pools were flashpoints of segregation, the Nile offered families a place to swim, gather, and build community on their own terms.