“We want to shine a light on this community, and help people understand what the African American community was like at one point,” Nelson Polite Jr. said.
Polite is one of the tour guides who will be hosting a newly designed Black History walking tour of Lancaster’s southeast neighborhoods.
It has been developed by the African American Historical Society of South Central Pennsylvania. The tour will complement the society’s existing tours of Black heritage and Underground Railroad sites in Lancaster’s downtown.
Historically, Lancaster’s Black population was concentrated in the southeast, due to housing discrimination in the city’s other neighborhoods. It was home to notable individuals such as Olympic sprinter Barney Ewell and Polite’s father, civic leader Nelson Polite Sr.
Urban renewal along the South Duke Street corridor in the 1960s was intended to reverse decades of neglect and blight, but instead it weakened neighborhood cohesion and deepened poverty, exacerbating problems that the area continues to struggle with.
The tours are not only important for adults, but for children, Polite said, to give them a sense of their heritage.
The neighborhood tours will be held on the second Saturday of each month from May to November, with two sessions each day, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
More information will be available soon on the society’s website.
Here are the 11 locations of the walking tour.
- Conestoga Elks: Duke St.
- Dr. Cooper: Duke St.
- Crispus Attucks Community Center: Howard Ave.
- Dr. Travis: Lime and Vine St.
- Reba Simms Home: Howard Ave.
- Moten Home: Howard Ave.
- Bethel AME Church- Strawberry St.
- Polite home | Green Book: 540 N. St.
- Odd Fellow Hall: Chester St.
- Barney Ewell Home: North and Christian St.
- Edwin Millen Home | Mt. Horeb Meeting Place: S. Duke St.
