The Ward: Race and Class in Philadelphia's Seventh Ward

Amy Hillier, Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the School of Design led an interactive luncheon on the board game she developed with students from the University of Pennsylvania, Haverford College, and local high schools. The board game is part of a five-day high school curriculum that teaches students about W.E.B. Du Bois’ pioneering research in Philadelphia that demonstrated the connection between racial discrimination and health and economic disparities. The game is intended to give players the experience of being a black resident of Philadelphia’s Old Seventh Ward in order to appreciate the barriers that race and class created to accessing health care, education, housing, and employment. Together with the 19-minute documentary A Legacy of Courage: W.E.B. Du Bois and The Philadelphia Negro, the curriculum was part of Hillier’s project entitled Mapping the Du Bois Philadelphia Negro – a project that combines GIS  technology and archival data to recreate the survey Du Bois conducted for his 1899 book, The Philadelphia Negro. Co-sponsored by the Center for Public Health Initiatives.