Meta V.W. Fuller (1877-1968)

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1992

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, who lived at this site, rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most acclaimed concert singers of the 19th century. Dubbed the "Black Swan" for her extraordinary vocal range, she won praise across the United States and in England, where she performed before Queen Victoria. She broke barriers as a Black woman commanding the concert stage in an era of deep racial prejudice.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1993

Billie Holiday—"Lady Day"—transformed American popular song with a voice that turned every lyric into lived experience. Beginning in 1933 she recorded alongside giants like Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson, and her searing rendition of "Strange Fruit" confronted the horror of lynching in a way no popular singer had dared. Deeply tied to Philadelphia, where she often lived, she remains one of the defining artists of twentieth-century jazz.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1993

Gertrude E.H. Bustill Mossell, born into Philadelphia's distinguished Bustill family, made her living with a pen at a time when few Black women could. As a teacher and journalist she wrote widely on race and women's rights, and her book "The Work of the Afro-American Woman" documented and celebrated Black women's contributions. She also raised funds for the Frederick Douglass Hospital, which her husband founded.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1992

In the decades before and after the Civil War, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was among the most widely read and widely heard Black voices in America—a poet, novelist, and traveling lecturer who took the abolitionist and, later, equal-rights cause to audiences across the country. From this Philadelphia home she wrote and organized, insisting that education was the surest road to advancement for Black Americans. Her work bridged the antislavery struggle and the reform movements of the later 19th century.