Chester HistoryThis collection includes images, articles and historical doucments about the City of Chester. It includes oral histories from Chester residents and an exhibit on the history of the SS City of Chester that was built in the city in 1875.
Chester TimelineView over 100 pictures depicting the history of the city of Chester from 1821 to the present. These photographs can also be found in the exhibit Connections: A Timeline of our History that is located on the walls of Widener’s Alumni Auditorium lobby.
Chester NAACP Scrapbook 1963-1964This scrapbook is a part of the George Raymond Papers. It was created by Patricia Taylor for the Chester Branch of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Its clippings chronicle the Chester Civil Rights movement during the period from 1963 to 1964, while George Raymond was president of the NAACP.
George Raymond Clippings - 1940s to 1960sThis project features a variety of newspaper clippings collected by George Raymond, head of the Chester NAACP for nearly 25 years. A majority of these clippings come from the Chester Times and its successor the Delaware County Daily Times and the rest come from Philadelphia and National Newspapers.
George Raymond Scrapbook - 1940s to 1960sThis scrapbook, created by Raymond, chronicles the Chester Civil Rights movement during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, through newspaper clippings, announcements, booklets and other materials.
George Raymond Scrapbook - 1960s - 1990sThis scrapbook, created by Raymond, focuses on the Chester Civil Rights movement in the 1960's through photographs, newspaper clippings and other materials, although it includes materials from other years.
George Raymond Scrapbook - 1940s to 1980sThis scrapbook, created by Raymond, includes photographs, articles from local and national newspapers, pamplets and other materials.
George Raymond Papers - 1940s to 1990sThese papers focus on the major Civil Rights activities that George Raymond was active in during the 1940s through 1960s including, integration of Chester Public Schools, fair housing policies, voter registration, and the integration of the Great Leopard Skating Rink. The papers also include Raymond's correspondence with local and national leaders, showing the lengths that he took to accomplish the goals of the Chester NAACP.
Delware County Newspapers
Delaware Country Daily Times - 2015
Widener University provides access to this microfilm to all researchers, the microflim is located on the library's main floor.
Delaware County Daily Times Historic Archives and Current - 1876 - PresentWidener University provides access to the Delaware County Daily Times databases; 1876 - 1994 and 1994 - Present through a partnership with the Delaware County Library System. Use this guide to gain access to these databases.
Welcome to the Chester Resources & Statistics Guide
History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania by Smedley, R. C.Reprint of a significant primary source on the Underground Railroad Colorful information and anecdotes from the participants Originally published in 1883 and long out of print, this remarkable volume examines the Underground Railroad as it operated in southeastern Pennsylvania. Based on interviews with those directly involved in the escaped slave network, it tells the stories of freedom seekers, those who helped them, and the places they hid. A new introduction by Christopher Densmore places the book in its historical context and assesses the work in light of more recent scholarship.
Politics and Prejudice: small-town Blacks battle a corrupt system by Harris, Richard E."Politics and Prejudice" tells the story of the Black population of Chester, Pennsylvania, starting with a few slaves in colonial times and ending with Chester as a majority-Black city in the 1980s. Author Richard Harris was eye-witness to many of the dramatic events of the struggle for equality during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, when Chester was in the national spotlight. Those events are vividly described, as are the many ways the repressive Republican political machine sought to suppress and manipulate Chesters Blacks.
Call Number: F159.C5 H37 2008
Publication Date: 2008-12-01
Race and the Politics of Deception by Christopher MeleWhat is the relationship between race and space, and how do racial politics inform the organization and development of urban locales? In Race and the Politics of Deception, Christopher Mele unpacks America's history of dealing with racial problems through the inequitable use of public space. Mele focuses on Chester, Pennsylvania--a small city comprised of primarily low-income, black residents, roughly twenty miles south of Philadelphia. Like many cities throughout the United States, Chester is experiencing post-industrial decline. A development plan touted as a way to "save" the city, proposes to turn one section into a desirable waterfront destination, while leaving the rest of the struggling residents in fractured communities. Dividing the city into spaces of tourism and consumption versus the everyday spaces of low-income residents, Mele argues, segregates the community by creating a racialized divide. While these development plans are described as socially inclusive and economically revitalizing, Mele asserts that political leaders and real estate developers intentionally exclude certain types of people--most often, low-income people of color. Race and the Politics of Deception provides a revealing look at how our ever-changing landscape is being strategically divided along lines of class and race.
ISBN: 9781479866090
Publication Date: 2017-01-10
Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania by Switala, Wiliam J.Revised and expanded with recently uncovered information Detailed maps of escape routes and networks Eyewitness accounts of fugitives Organized in antebellum America to help slaves escape to freedom, the Underground Railroad was cloaked in secrecy and operated at great peril to everyone involved. The system was extremely active in Pennsylvania, with routes running through cities and towns in all parts of the state. This revised second edition retraces the routes with detailed maps, discusses the large city networks, identifies the houses and sites where escapees found refuge, and records the names of the people who risked their lives to support the operation.
Call Number: E445.P3 S95 2008
Publication Date: 2008-08-21
Don't Burn It Here: Grassroots challenges to trash incinerators by Walsh, Edward J., Warland, Rex & Smith, D. ClaytonWhen first proposed in this country during the 1970s, waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerators appeared to be ideal solutions to the growing mounds of trash in our "throw-away" society. Promising to convert useless garbage into electricity while saving precious landfill space, trash incinerators seemed perfectly timed to respond to a national need. Within a decade, however, a grassroots anti-incineration movement emerged as a vibrant offshoot of the environmental movement. In Don't Burn It Here, sociologists Edward Walsh, Rex Warland, and D. Clayton Smith examine this grassroots movement through detailed analyses of the struggles surrounding proposals to build eight municipal incinerators in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. The eight case histories that form the heart of the book are comparable to hundreds of others across the U.S. The authors' research is based on interviews, focus group discussions, extensive newspaper files, and questionnaire responses from participants on both sides of the conflicts. A final chapter examines the similarities and differences between the three successful projects and the five defeated ones. An overview of the history of the modern incinerator in the U.S. and the emergence of a major national opposition movement provides the necessary context, and throughout the book, the authors make useful comparisons to other national movements seeking legal justice for deprived collectivities such as women and ethnic groups. This project was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation's Fund for Research in Dispute Resolution. Striving to maintain a balanced treatment of both sides of the incinerator battles, the authors provide fresh theoretical and methodological perspectives on a new type of collective action. They also help to close the gap between theory and empirical data in the social sciences.
Justice In Chester -- DocumentaryAn in-depth history of the grassroots struggle to stop the clustering of commercial waste facilities in Chester, PA--a predominately poor African American community. We’ll examine the Environmental Justice movement through the lens of Chester residents and highlight the power of grassroots efforts to affect positive change.
Laid to Waste: A Chester neighborhood Fights for its FutureSimply put, this acclaimed documentary is the best case study of environmental injustice and racism available on video. In the economically depressed, largely African-American "West End" of Chester, Pennsylvania, Zulene Mayfield lives next door to the fourth-largest trash-to-steam incinerator in the nation and a few doors away from a large processing facility for infectious and hazardous medical waste. The county's sewage treatment plant sits adjacent to her neighbors' homes a block away, and additional waste-processing facilities have been proposed for the community. Daily, trucks from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and as far away as Virginia roll past homes on Chester's Second Street, delivering thousands of tons of waste. Residents believe that their lives are being disrupted, their health threatened, their community destroyed, and the very air they breathe dangerously polluted. A grassroots organization called Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL) has taken an active role in opposing the facilities and in publicizing the plants' impact on their community. Representatives of the waste-processing companies argue that their facilities are safe and that they bring much-needed jobs to Chester. "Laid to Waste" documents a community's attempt to deal with the complex issues of environmental injustice. The story unfolds dramatically as the residents seek to discover and confront the forces that have chosen their community for such facilities. Though CRCQL receives threats and its office is vandalized, the group continues to protest and to challenge the waste industry. Ultimately, a controversy surrounding an obscure legal maneuver used by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court draws statewide attention to the situation, and brings the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee to Chester's West End to investigate allegations of corruption and collusion at the highest levels of government and the waste industry."Laid to Waste" is a must-see in any course dealing with environmental issues, urban studies, public policy, African American studies, sociology, or social problems. It was produced by Robert Bahar and George McCollough.
Looking Back to Move Forward -- Documentaryhester is a city in PA that has seem to gather a decent amount of negativity from word of mouth and news media. My partner, Kirsten Chu, and I were asked to make a documentary presenting the positive aspects of Chester for our senior capstone project at Widener University. Enjoy.