Explore Black History in Philadelphia: 51 Historic Sites, Tours & Cultural Institutions

At Cliveden, tours and artifacts uncover details about life on northern plantations, efforts to escape enslavement and the legal maneuverings of Benjamin Chew, the patriarch of one of the largest slave-holding families in Philadelphia.

Black history exhibits at Cliveden include The Chews & The Complex Institution of Slavery and The African American Experience at Epsom Farm. One of Cliveden’s research projects — Illuminating Hidden Lives: Black Stories of the Mid-Atlantic Region — provides access to documents in the Chew Family Papers.

The site is open for tours from May through November.

Located in Germantown, the Concord School House and Upper Burying Ground share land and feature an intact schoolroom from 1775 and one of the oldest cemeteries in Philadelphia, dating back to 1693.

Visitors to the school site can view an authentic 19th-century classroom, an area where abolitionists gathered regularly. Historical documents indicate that both the school and the burial ground were integrated.

The combined site opens to the public on the second Saturday of each month from July through October and other times by appointment. Entry is free with a suggested donation.

Stephen Girard died in 1831 as the wealthiest man in America. In his will, he instructed that his vast fortune be used to establish a college prep school for “poor, white male orphans” named Girard College. The college refused to integrate after segregation was ruled unconstitutional. After a lengthy legal battle, Girard College began admitting Black students in 1968.

At the college’s Founder’s Hall Museum, visitors can learn more about the history of Girard College’s desegregation (as well as more about the school and Girard’s life) during regular weekday hours (Wednesdays through Fridays).

The Historic Eden Cemetery in Delaware County remains the oldest Black-owned cemetery in the nation still in use.

In the late 19th century, Philadelphia underwent an urban expansion that forced Black burial grounds to close and relocate their gravesites.

Eden responded by establishing a cemetery where those remains could find a permanent home. Now, more than 90,000 Black people are buried in the historic cemetery, including civil rights figures like Octavius V. Catto, James Forten, Absalom Jones and William Still, as well as notable figures like architect Julian Abele and renowned singer Marian Anderson.

Quaker burial ground Historic Fair Hill serves as the final resting place of many prominent abolitionists and activists, including Lucretia Mott, Robert Purvis and several Black leaders of the Underground Railroad.

After Quaker founder George Fox received the land from William Penn, he established a meetinghouse and a racially integrated burial ground in 1703. Today, visitors can explore the grounds (open free of charge) from April through November.

The site also offers programs in literacy, urban greening and history tours that include a visit to nearby murals, including Tribute to Harriet Tubman.

As a Quaker abolitionist family in colonial Philadelphia, the Johnsons offered their home as safe space for enslaved peoples seeking freedom on the Underground Railroad. Now a National Historic Landmark, the historic house museum invites the public to tour one of the last remaining Underground Railroad stations in the city.

Displays and artifacts throughout the site tell about the injustices of slavery and how the Johnson family fought for equality. Prominent abolitionist William Still would often hold “meetings” at the site to help others escape. And, although unconfirmed, family lore says that Harriet Tubman once stayed at the site.

The Liberty Bell Center — home to the Liberty Bell and its dedicated museum since 2003 — invites visitors to learn about the connection between the bell and African American history. Videos and interactive displays explain how the abolitionist movement adopted the object as a symbol of freedom based on its inscribed quote from Leviticus, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” 

Beginning in the late 1800s, the bell traveled around the country to expositions to help heal the divisions of the Civil War, reminding Americans of when the nation came together to fight for independence. 

The President’s House memorializes the paradox of slavery and freedom at the site of the nation’s first executive mansion, in which Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived during their terms and where nine enslaved people served the first president.

The open-air Independence National Historical Park site, located just steps from the Liberty Bell Center, offers a place for silent reflection and also features a large glass vitrine that allows visitors to view archaeological fragments that were unearthed at the site in 2007.

Note: The interpretive panels at the President’s House were removed by the National Park Service on January 22, 2026. Approximately half of the interpretive panels were restored on February 20, 2026.

James Logan’s storied career included serving as secretary to William Penn, a mentor to Benjamin Franklin and the mayor of Philadelphia (hence his namesake Logan Square in Center City).

Logan’s former plantation, Stenton, survives as an example of early Georgian-style architecture and now serves as a museum featuring exquisite woodwork, preserved details and Logan’s near 2,700-volume library that revolutionaries like Franklin and John Bartram once used for research.

Situated on three of its original 500 acres in Germantown, the site once housed enslaved people, including housekeeper Dinah, who reportedly saved the mansion from being burned during the Revolutionary War.

Philadelphia’s neighbor to the north, Bucks County, has numerous historic locations that were once stops on the Underground Railroad. Visit towns like Yardley, Bristol, Newtown, New Hope and Doylestown to see the churches, farms, taverns and more where abolitionists hid and aided enslaved people on their journey north.

Our colleagues at Visit Bucks County have curated two self-guided driving tours, one throughout upper Bucks and the other through the lower part of the county. Follow along with the text on the website to learn more about each location.

Six-and-a-half acre Washington Square, one of city planner William Penn’s five original square parks, once served as a gathering place for both free and enslaved Africans in Philadelphia.

Penn designated the square as a burial ground where many Africans were buried. Prior to the Revolutionary War, up to a thousand African people would congregate in what they called Congo Square to celebrate holidays and protect the remains of their interred loved ones.

Valley Forge National Historical Park in Montgomery County tells the well-known story of the winter 1777-1778 encampment of Washington’s Continental Army, a fighting force which included many African American soldiers and brigades. The park’s Patriots of African Descent Monument honors those of African descent who served during the Army’s Valley Forge encampment.

Learn about how thousands of Patriots of Color, both free and enslaved African people, fought for freedom in the Revolutionary War. Explore interpretive signs at the park’s visitor center or take a variety of tours to explore the sprawling encampment area.

Located inside historic Parker Hall, an unofficial World War II USO site for African American soldiers and their families, Aces Veterans Museum honors Black and minority veterans.

Organized under the motto “Every Day is Veterans Day,” the Germantown museum features exhibits and memorabilia committed to supporting, educating, serving and celebrating the often-overlooked contributions of minority veterans. The African American Veterans exhibit features a curated collection of artifacts and captivating photographs from the Second World War.

Sign up for a professionally guided tour of the museum or buy access to a virtual tour to explore the site.

Founded in 1976​​, the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) opened during the U.S. Bicentennial as the first institution built by a major city to preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage and culture of African Americans.

The museum’s permanent exhibit — Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia 1776-1876 — takes a fresh and bold look at the stories of people of African descent in America and their unheralded impact in the founding of the nation. AAMP rotates exhibits regularly and also hosts an online exhibit on mass incarceration called Rendering Justice.

Museum founder Vashti DuBois began The Colored Girls Museum in her then-home in Germantown as a memoir museum to honor “the ‘ordinary’ colored girl of African descent.”

The goal: to gather artifacts representing a lived experience of Black girls and women. The space’s displays don’t always contain historic artifacts, but they are always true to history.

Learn more about the museum’s founding in this episode of Love + Grit, Visit Philadelphia’s podcast.

The Fireman’s Hall Museum showcases the art and science of firefighting through the last three centuries.

Philly’s fire department didn’t racially integrate until 15 years after its founding. So, in addition to visiting the cool antique fire trucks on site, guests can learn more about the history and legacy of service of Black firefighters in the city, including the forced segregation of all-Black company Engine #11 (see below).

Enjoy free admission when you visit the museum during open hours Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Lest We Forget Museum of Slavery (LWFSM), holds hundreds of authentic “slavery artifacts” in its museum collection, along with a trove of historic documents. The only museum of its kind in Philadelphia, the museum’s displays of shackles, chains, whips, and branding irons aim to show the tragic reality of slavery.

The Germantown institution also features ship manifests, auction signs, bills of sale and a variety of Jim Crow objects that segregated and stereotyped African Americans. The LWFSM opens for tours by appointment only, and also takes artifacts on the road for traveling exhibitions.

Telling the story of the Revolutionary War through personal accounts, the Museum of the American Revolution includes several exhibits and artifacts documenting the African American experience during the tumultuous time in early America.

Visit the award-winning Finding Freedom exhibit to learn the stories of enslaved men and women in Virginia, or see rare artifacts like an original copy of Phillis Wheatley’s poetry. In addition to the exhibits, the museum has partnered with Ancestry to allow access to more than 200 documents in its Patriots of Color Archive.

You can also explore Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia as an online exhibit.

At the National Constitution Center (NCC), artifacts and exhibits illustrate important Constitutional moments in the struggle for equality for African Americans, including pivotal Supreme Court cases and the fight for amendments establishing rights for all.

Don’t miss the center’s permanent exhibit, Civil War and Reconstruction: The Battle for Freedom and Equality, the first in the nation to explore the amendments that ended slavery. You can also explore the entire exhibit virtually.

The National Liberty Museum presents the enduring stories surrounding worldwide battles for liberty.

The Heroes from Around the World gallery spotlights notable people from all walks of life and time periods who have worked to protect and advance freedom. Featuring several galleries and a regular lineup of programs and events, the museum sparks dialogue and encourages visitors to engage in meaningful conversation about issues surrounding liberty and equality.

Also on site: an exact replica of the Liberty Bell, which greets all visitors who enter.

An understated facade fronts the three-story former home of opera singer, humanitarian and Civil Rights icon Marian Anderson in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. The National Marian Anderson Museum celebrates the life and work of the contralto, the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Anderson made history in 1939 when she sang outdoors in front of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of 75,000 fans after being shut out of Constitution Hall.

Renaissance man and freedom fighter Paul Robeson called West Philadelphia home for the last 10 years of his life (1966 to 76) when he moved in with his sister, Marian R. Forsythe. He wore many hats over his storied lifetime — professional football player, human rights activist, lawyer, actor and singer with a resonant bass-baritone voice.

You can hear many of his voice recordings when you tour the Paul Robeson House (Wednesdays through Saturdays by appointment). Exhibits detail Robeson’s rich history of accomplishments, his ties to Philadelphia and how he battled against inequality with his deep voice.

Julian Abele, the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, played a key role in designing two of Philly’s most iconic buildings: the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Parkway Central Library branch, both located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The Philadelphia-born architect designed the famed Beaux-Arts look of the library’s main building which opened in 1927, and created the exterior terracing of the art museum, including its world-renowned front steps made famous in the 1976 film Rocky.

Secretary to George Washington, abolitionist judge Richard Peters would often host the president and other Founding Fathers at his Belmont Mansion estate. Peters would become an opponent to the Fugitive Slave Act and a precedent-setting judicial decision-maker.

Belmont Mansion has been preserved and transformed into Fairmount Park’s Underground Railroad Museum, where visitors can view historical artifacts and hear narratives about the site’s history, including that of Cornelia Wells, a free African American woman who lived there and aided others seeking freedom.

The museum is open Tuesdays through Thursdays. Tickets are required.

The art and history experience Legacy Reclaimed: A 7th Ward Tribute honors the lives — and lesser-known history — of 19th-century Black residents of Philadelphia’s old 7th Ward. An important part of the Underground Railroad and Great Migration, the 7th Ward was the former home to 15,000 Black residents, including Octavius V. Catto and W.EB. Du Bois.

Legacy Reclaimed’s self-guided tour brochure takes you to two dozen historically significant homes, landmarks and institutions throughout what’s now known as Society Hill and Washington Square West.

The neighborhood around South Street abounds with Black history sites. Black History on South Street: A Self-Guided Tour, from the South Street Headhouse District business organization, leads you through historic stops as well as more modern notable places.

Visit the all-Black Engine #11 fire station and Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, walk down the Avenue of The Roots, see murals honoring skateboarder Roger Browne and the Black women of the Philly AIDS Thrift Shop, and do your best Boyz II Men impersonation when you get to iconic spots from the group’s Motownphilly music video.

Black Americans’ role in the nation’s founding often goes undiscussed. The walking tours from The Black Journey Tours aim to educate others about that rich history.

On the Original Black History Tour of Old City, you’ll walk in the footsteps of early African Americans, enslaved people, slave-owners and abolitionists. The Seventh Ward Tour takes you down the streets in the neighborhood that was once Philadelphia’s epicenter of Black culture.

Schedule a tour by appointment on weekdays, purchase a ticket for a weekend tour or check out the online audio tour.

The Kennett Underground Railroad Center offers guide-led bus tours, visiting documented Underground Railroad sites, historic homes of local abolitionists and Quaker Meetinghouses where African Americans connected with their faith communities throughout the Kennett Square area.

The tours run for two hours and fifteen minutes from March through October on the third Sunday of each month (unless otherwise noted) at 1 p.m., departing from the Kennett Heritage Center. Check the website to purchase tickets or find out more info about setting up a private tour.

Family-friendly (and free!) Once Upon A Nation Storytelling Benches feature true tales spun by professional (and sometimes costumed) speakers at locations around Philadelphia’s Historic District.

Told in just three to five minutes each, the stories recount details about some of our nation’s earliest citizens, well- and not-so-well-known, who shaped America’s history. They include Frederick Douglass, Ona Judge (an enslaved woman who escaped George Washington’s Philadelphia home) and Caroline LeCount, who successfully won the right for all people to ride in Philadelphia’s streetcars.

Benches are open on select days from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Visitors who explore every bench can earn a special surprise at nearby Franklin Square.

On Philadelphia Historic African American Tours, you provide a van or bus and pick up your guide, who shepherds your group on an excursion around some of Philadelphia’s most important sites, focusing on the African American figures and stories.

On the tour, which is customized to your group, you can visit locations like the Liberty Bell, the President’s House, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and Julian Abele’s Rocky Steps), the African American Museum, the Marian Anderson residence, stops along the Underground Railroad and even the legendary studios of Gamble and Huff.

Philadelphia’s main newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, has curated several Black history walking tours across the city. You can listen to audio or read along as you walk the self-guided tours.

• Anti-Slavery Tours: Early Philadelphians were heavily involved in the abolitionist movement, and the path of the Underground Railroad passed through the city, helping enslaved people find freedom here or onward north into Canada. The Inquirer’s two free self-guided Anti-Slavery Walking Tours — one through Old City and Society Hill and another around Northwest Philadelphia — guides you to anti-slavery landmarks like the Henry Minton House, where Frederick Douglass attended meetings and John Brown allegedly stayed on his way to raid Harpers Ferry.
• Black History Historical Marker Tour: Much of Philadelphia’s rich Black history lives on through the stories of important moments involving the Black community. Without museums or attractions to revisit these moments, they’ve instead been memorialized through permanent historical markers which help preserve these legacies around the city. The Inquirer’s self-guided Black History Historical Marker Tour map helps lead you through the city and learn more about these historic moments.

In 1792, Bishop Absalom Jones founded the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the nation’s first Black Episcopal church (near today’s Washington Square), with a congregation made up of members of the Free African Society, also founded by Jones.

Today, the church’s traditions of outreach and spirited worship continue in West Philadelphia’s Overbrook Farms neighborhood. Tours of the historic building and its archival collection are available with advance request.

Bonus fact: Bishop Jones was a direct ancestor of architect Julian Abele, a key designer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Parkway Central Library (see above).

Philadelphia’s Quaker founder, William Penn, deeded the historic Arch Street Friends Meeting House and Burial Ground in Old City to the Society of Friends in 1682. The congregation featured several outspoken abolitionists. (You can hear more about them in this podcast.) In 1779, the Quakers who worshipped at the society voted to expel any member who refused to free his slaves.

You can visit the museum at the meeting house and take a self-guided tour of the grounds and historic worship space for free, but donations are encouraged.

Christ Church — where Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Betsy Ross were congregants — also holds significance in the history of slavery and abolition in Philadelphia.

Over its early history, the church ordained Absalom Jones (see above) as the nation’s first African American Episcopalian priest, baptized a quarter of free and enslaved Africans in Philadelphia, helped establish a permanent school for enslaved children, and was a key site where enslaved Philadelphians were able to receive baptisms, hold weddings and attend funerals.

The historic site opens for tours of the church and nearby burial ground daily, with walk-ins welcome.

North Philly’s George W. South Memorial Church of the Advocate has a deep history of community involvement and social justice activism. The National Historic Landmark — known for its striking Gothic Revival architecture — serves as a memorial to civic leader George W. South.

Visit the 14 stunning murals inside representing Black history in America. The murals — each based on a bible passage — depict scenes of slavery, emancipation and the Civil Rights Movement.

The site of several significant activism rallies also made history as the first Episcopal church in the world to ordain women priests. Visit the church by appointment only.

The Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church (HSG), the oldest Methodist church in continuous use in the nation dating back to 1769, welcomed Black worshippers and licensed Richard Allen and Absalom Jones as its first African American Methodist lay preachers.

In 1787, a dispute over segregated seating policies led to a permanent walkout and the creation of both the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas (see above) and Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church (see below). See portraits, items of worship, manuscripts and other artifacts on display in the HSG Museum & Archives or make an appointment to take a tour.

Known as the mother church of the nation’s first Black denomination, Mother Bethel Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church sits on the oldest parcel of land in Philadelphia continuously owned by African Americans. Bishop Richard Allen founded the church in 1794.

Today, Mother Bethel remains open as an archives, a museum and an active church in Society Hill. The onsite Richard Allen Museum houses the tomb of the first Bishop of the A.M.E. Church and church artifacts from the 1600s.

Visit the museum during open hours on weekends or make a weekday appointment.

Philadelphia Association for Public Art offers a robust database to help you navigate visits to public art sculptures and memorials across the city. You can sort art entries thematically, including these highlights:

• All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors: Located in the west park of Logan Circle, the All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors monument honors African American servicemen from Pennsylvania who fought in conflicts from the Revolutionary War to World War I. The granite memorial rises more than 21 feet tall and features 10 figures, plus a central female representation of Justice. The sculpture set was dedicated in 1934 at its original site in Fairmount Park before moving to its current location facing the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
• Engine Company #11 All-Black Firehouse Historical Marker & Mural: Organized in 1871, the Philadelphia Fire Department didn’t integrate until 1886 when it began employing a single African American firefighter at Engine Company #11 on South Street. In 1923, Engine #11 became the city’s only all-Black firehouse, with a full complement of 20 Black firefighters (though still under a white captain, lieutenant and engineer), which remained in place until desegregation in 1952. A historical marker sits at the original firehouse at 10th and South, and the mural Mapping Courage honoring the history of Engine #11 can be seen on the current firehouse (opened in 1976) at 6th and South.
• Negro League Memorial: A former wooden stadium on the edge of Fairmount Park, 44th and Parkside Ballpark (formally Penmar Park) opened in 1903 and was home to the Negro Leagues’ Philadelphia Stars from 1936 until 1952 and held up to 10,000 patrons. Today, the site, which saw the likes of Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige grace its field, has become Philadelphia Stars Negro League Memorial Park, constructed in 2004, which features a historical marker, the seven-foot high Negro Leagues Memorial Statue and the Mural Arts program’s Philadelphia Stars: a tribute to Negro League baseball collage mural.
• Octavius V. Catto Memorial: In a city with more than 1,500 statues, the Octavius V. Catto Memorial — formally A Quest for Parity— in 2017 became Philadelphia’s first to honor a specific African American. Catto was a 19th-century civil rights crusader who led efforts to desegregate Philadelphia’s streetcars and fought for equal voting rights. On October 10, 1871, the first election day after the 15th Amendment guaranteed African American men the right to vote, he was shot and killed on South Street. Sculptor Branly Cadet created the 12-foot bronze memorial featuring Catto in a powerful stance walking toward a stainless steel ballot box.
• Whispering Bells: A Tribute to Crispus Attucks: Anchored outside the African American Museum of Philadelphia (see above), the sculpture Whispering Bells: A Tribute to Crispus Attucks honors the first American to die fighting for the nation’s independence from Britain. After escaping slavery, Attucks worked on a whaling ship and participated in a protest on March 5, 1770. British soldiers fired upon the protestors, killing Attucks and four others, memorialized in history as the Boston Massacre. The bells, designed by Reginald Beauchamp, only ring with the wind.

Founded in 1959, Hakim’s Bookstore and Gift Shop holds the title of oldest Black-owned bookstore on the East Coast and one of the oldest in the nation. With a collection devoted to Black studies and history, as well as children’s literature, biographies, memoirs and rare books from Black authors, the West Philadelphia bookseller has long been a gathering spot for activists, intellectuals, academics and community leaders.

Historian and scholar Dawud Hakim founded the shop, which remains a vital fixture in the community now under the leadership of Hakim’s daughter, Yvonne Blake.

New Freedom Theatre founder John E. Allen left his day job at Sun Oil to run the theater company he started in 1966 in a North Philadelphia storefront. The theater now holds the title of Pennsylvania’s oldest Black theatrical organization and one of the nation’s most honored Black professional theater companies.

New Freedom has staged productions from such celebrated African American playwrights as James Baldwin, Ossie Davis, Charles Fuller, Ntozake Shange, August Wilson and LeRoi Jones. Alumni include Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr., Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris, Living Single’s Erika Alexander and Tony and Emmy Award nominee Samm-Art Williams.

Founded in 1966 through the efforts of Philadelphia’s African American musicians’ union (Union Local No. 274 of the American Federation of Musicians), the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts counted John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie among its members and played a significant role in the advancement of jazz in Philadelphia and the world.

In 1978, The Clef expanded its mission to include jazz performance, instruction and preservation, becoming the nation’s first facility constructed specifically as a jazz institution. If you’d like to catch a show, check out the list of upcoming live concerts on the website.

Established in 1884, The Philadelphia Tribune remains the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the nation. Christopher J. Perry founded the paper, which also has a history of advocating for the social, political and economic advancement of African Americans in Philadelphia, such as helping end segregation in Philadelphia schools.

Known as the “Voice of the Black Community,” the paper (originally housed in the Jewelers’ Row district) has published from its offices in Graduate Hospital since 1912. Read about the paper’s history on a historical marker on the site.

Visitors can find a phenomenal selection of works by Black artists within permanent collections, special exhibitions and exciting shows at museums and galleries around Philadelphia to view works in media of all varieties including these highlights:

• Barnes Foundation: The Barnes Foundation, situated steps away from the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Benjamin Franklin Parkway has a robust array of African masks and art in its collection.
• Mural Arts Murals: Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program has a citywide map for users to create a self-curated tour of the numerous murals with Black history themes. Combining the Mural Arts map with the Association of Public Art’s map can provide days of public-art-filled walks and strolls.
• Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Since 1972, the Brandywine Workshop has been a national force in the development and understanding of American printmaking as a fine art form. The organization has sponsored the residencies of hundreds of domestic and international artists, in addition to ethnically diverse artists from around the region.