Instagram story viewer> @aahsscpa> Posts

African American History SCPA

@aahsscpa

457

followers

131

following

Non-profit historical society, African American walking tours, lectures, and genealogy in South Central Pennsylvania.

POSTS STORIES REELS

Yesterday, we gathered to dedicate a historical marker honoring the legacy of the Spencer F. Wilkerson Funeral Home and the lasting impact of Spencer and Ruby Wilkerson on Lancaster’s 7th Ward.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this meaningful day possible: the African American Historical Society of South Central PA President, Nelson M. Polite Jr. for opening the ceremony with a moving libation, Kevin Daniels for the invocation, Shianne Hargrove, Vice President & Archivist of the African American Historical Society of South Central PA, for presenting the Wilkerson Family Research and for her historical research on the Spencer F. Wilkerson Funeral Home through @lancohistory. Her background research helped shape the historical marker. Emmanuel Smallwood for highlighting Spencer Wilkerson’s service as a Buffalo Soldier, Samantha Dorm for honoring Ruby Wilkerson and the trailblazing women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, Sylvia Cavanaugh for sharing the importance of preserving African American heritage in Southeast Lancaster, Spencer Wilkerson Jr. for entrusting us with his family’s story and sharing heartfelt reflections, and Maxine Cook for closing the ceremony.

It was a beautiful morning of remembrance, gratitude, and community as we celebrated a family whose service, sacrifice, and compassion touched generations. May this marker stand as a lasting tribute to the Wilkerson family’s enduring legacy and ensure their story continues to inspire future generations.

A special thank you to our sponsors: @snyderfuneralhome, @saca_lancaster, Heart to Heart Ministry, and Minder Nurseries. by @aahsscpa

A love story. A legacy of service. A community remembered.

On October 10, we will honor the Spencer F. Wilkerson Funeral Home, a historic African American business that faithfully served Lancaster’s 7th Ward for decades. Founded by WWII veteran and community leader Spencer F. Wilkerson, alongside his wife Ruby Mae Wilson Wilkerson, a member of the trailblazing Women’s Army Corps 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, their impact extended far beyond the funeral profession.

Join us as we unveil a historical marker on the anniversary of their October 10, 1945 wedding in Rouen, France and celebrate a remarkable legacy of faith, service, family, and community.

🗓 Saturday, October 10 | 10am
📍 Heart to Heart Ministries, 502 S. Christian Street
🎟️ Free & Open to the Public

#Wilkersonfamily #SpencerFWilkerson #HistoricalMarker #AAHSSCPA by @aahsscpa

On a quiet corner outside @YWCALancaster, a small brass marker was placed in the ground, carrying the weight of a story that had gone untold for centuries.

Community members gathered for the unveiling of a Witness Stone honoring Hannah, an enslaved woman who lived and labored on the property where the YWCA now stands. The ceremony was part of the Witness Stones Project, a public history initiative that restores the names and stories of enslaved people to the places where they lived, worked and were denied their freedom.

For many in attendance, the ceremony acknowledged a chapter of Lancaster’s history that has too often been overlooked. Hannah’s story was uncovered through years of research by students from @mccaskeyhighschool and @fandmcollege. Their work pieced together the limited historical record, including the 1779 will of Edward Shippen, which stated that Hannah had been given the choice to gain her freedom or remain enslaved.

At approximately 58 years old, after spending nearly her entire life in enslavement, that decision carried a complexity that cannot be understood through today’s lens.
Without accumulated wealth, separated from her husband, who lived nearly 90 miles away in Philadelphia, and facing old age with little support, freedom did not necessarily promise security. Historical records never reveal what Hannah ultimately chose. Some parts of her story may never be known, but her name and her life are no longer missing from Lancaster’s history.

During the ceremony, speakers reflected on the importance of telling the complete story of Lancaster, one that includes both its accomplishments and its injustices. Remembering people like Hannah means telling that history more honestly.

The Witness Stone now permanently marks the site where Hannah was enslaved, ensuring that everyone who passes by has the opportunity to learn her name. It also serves as a reminder that slavery was part of Pennsylvania’s history, including Lancaster’s, and that its legacy continues to be examined today.

For centuries, Hannah’s story was easy to pass without noticing. Now, anyone who walks by will know she was here.

#lancasterpa #history #strongertogether by @aahsscpa

A powerful reminder that history is all around us.

During our quarterly Full Staff Day, the ASSETS team toured Southeast Lancaster with the African American Historical Society of South Central PA.

We learned about a vibrant African American community that built a strong culture of faith, service, and entrepreneurship. We also learned about the lasting impact of Urban Renewal on the people and community spaces that once helped this neighborhood thrive.

We’re grateful to @aahsscpa for bringing this important history to life and helping ensure it isn’t forgotten. If you haven’t experienced one of their tours, we encourage you to check them out to learn more about the communities that shaped Lancaster. by @aahsscpa

I have a very iconic ancestor & as a descendant I had the opportunity to present a workshop about who decide what legacy is carried into the future and the role of community centered public art.

We spoke about how rich my family legacy is and how the work I’m doing today feels like an evolution of the impact they made generations before me. I facilitated an activity where groups discussed what forms of public art could preserve legacies worth honoring, that resulting in some thought provoking creative ideas.

William Whipper was one of the richest Black entrepreneurs of his time. He played a major role in the anti slavery movement and the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman literally relied on abolitionists like him to help hundreds of enslaved people reach freedom.

I appreciate my family historian David Moore and the @aahsscpa for inviting me. @lancohistory recently opened a museum with an exhibition dedicated to William Whipper that I definitely recommend everyone check out.

🚨AND IF YOU ARE RELATED TO ME: We are hosting the very first Whipper reunion in my lifetime in South Carolina this September, which I’m super excited about. Jackson, Walker, Whipper Family Day @jwwfamilyday. I’m trying my best to reach everyone, but if you can share the page around, I’d really appreciate it. I want to meet allllll the descendants.

It’s important that we continue carrying on this legacy of knowledge, community, and gathering.

📸 @donforpres + Bri Nguyen by @aahsscpa

History has a way of becoming more alive when it’s held in community. The @lancasterpubliclibrary became a space full of dialogue and responsibility as community members came together for the final William Whipper Reading Circle of 2026, presented by the @aahsscpa

The series honors William Whipper, a 19th-century entrepreneur and Underground Railroad operator from Columbia. But this evening was about asking what history still requires of us now.

Through small group conversations, shared reflections, and moments of connection across generations, the room carried the kind of energy that reminds you democracy is shaped in public spaces, and in the willingness to listen, remember, and keep learning from the people who came before us.

The evening featured @dyymondwy, a Philadelphia artist, educator, and descendant of William Whipper, who shared how her family heritage continues to shape her art and her understanding of responsibility. Hearing history spoken through a living descendant reminds you that legacy is what we choose to carry forward.

@mrballentyne, community advocate and longtime student of history, also guided reflection on Frederick Douglass’s 1894 speech “Lessons of the Hour,” delivered at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington, D.C. More than a century later, Douglass’s words still ask us to pay attention. To the times we’re living in. To the responsibility we have when freedom, truth, and justice are on the line.

That is what made this gathering feel so meaningful. It was a room full of people in conversation with history and with each other.

That is what it means to animate democracy.

The William Whipper Reading Circle was created in honor of the late Lenwood “Leni” Sloan, a revered Lancaster historian and artist whose work helped open doors for deeper conversations about Black history. You could feel that spirit in the room. Not in a performative way, but in the quiet care people brought to the space.

And on this evening, William Whipper’s story was not just remembered. It was carried.

#lancasterpa #history #education #supportlocal by @aahsscpa

For seminar this week we went on a walking tour of the Southeast neighborhood, with the African American Historical Society of South Central Pennsylvania @aahsscpa . Nelson Polite Jr. was our tour guide, who shared with us about the character and contributions to the community of the African American residents and leaders in the Southeast part of Lancaster over the years, many of whom he had personal connections with. We heard example after example of people who cared deeply for their neighbors, built up their community, and fought for their rights, from doctors and educators to barbers and funeral home directors. We also learned about the struggles and injustices this community has faced and continues to face, from slavery to the intentional destruction of homes and community spaces through urban renewal. We are grateful for the opportunity to learn about this history, and the impact it has on us and our neighbors today. by @aahsscpa

The rain couldn’t stop us!☔️ Thank you @lancaster_rec for another great Open Streets experience! The African American Historical Society of South Central Pennsylvania was glad to be a part of such a great community event. by @aahsscpa

Join us Tuesday, May 12, 5pm-7pm at Lancaster Public Library for the presentation “Animating Democracy: The William Whipper Reading Circle.” This will be the final William Whipper Reading Circle of 2026. The series honors William Whipper, a 19th-century entrepreneur and Underground Railroad operator from Columbia, Lancaster County. Dyymond Whipper-Young, a Philadelphia artist and educator and descendant of Whipper, will discuss her family heritage and how it shapes her art. Chris Ballentine, a dedicated history student and community advocate, will reflect on Frederick Douglass’s 1894 speech at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., “Lessons of the Hour.”

This series of monthly public gatherings is sponsored by the African American Historical Society of hSouth-Central Pennsylvania and hosted by Lancaster Public Library in honor of the late Lenwood “Leni” Sloan of Lancaster, revered historian and artist. Learn more by clicking the link the bio. by @aahsscpa

What does it mean to remember a place honestly? At the Lancaster Witness Stones Project Dedication Ceremony, that question didn’t sit quietly in the background. It was spoken, studied, and carried forward by students who spent months uncovering the lives of those who were once deliberately erased.

Cesar. Fanny. Hannah. Patty. Peg. Phillis. Prince. Will. And two individuals whose names have not yet been recovered. Their names, uncovered through careful research, were spoken aloud and placed back into the public memory of the city.

Through a partnership @historicrockford, the @aahsscpa, @fandmcollege Reckoning with Lancaster initiative, students from @mccaskeyhighschool were invited into the work of history.

They studied five core themes. Dehumanization. Treatment. Economics. Paternalism. Agency. Then they added a sixth. Geography. Not just where events happened, but how power shapes what is remembered and what is not.

Prince was purchased and recorded as an investment, his life reduced to numbers before being cut short. Hannah was offered freedom late in life, but only under conditions that revealed the limits of choice within a system built on constraint. Will asserted his agency by escaping, leaving behind only a description in a runaway advertisement and an uncertain outcome. Fanny’s path toward freedom was marked by movement, contracts, and uncertainty, her story ending without resolution in the historical record.

Each story challenged the idea that progress moves cleanly or evenly. Each one revealed the distance between law and lived experience.

Students traced the names of enslavers that still exist across Lancaster in street signs, buildings, and public markers, asking the community to reconsider what has been normalized in the landscape.

In doing so, they transformed history from something distant into something immediate, because history isn’t only something we inherit. It’s something we shape by what we choose to acknowledge.

And on this day, in speaking their names, Lancaster moved one step closer to remembering more fully.

#lancasterpa #history #education #blackhistory #community by @aahsscpa

As our nation approaches its 250th anniversary, Lancaster is reflecting on the full story of its past.

Students at McCaskey High School recently partnered with Historic Rock Ford and the African American Historical Society of South Central Pennsylvania to research and honor four individuals enslaved in Lancaster: Robert, Susan, Bet, and Frank.

Through archival letters, runaway ads, and on-site visits, students uncovered powerful stories of resilience and resistance. They created documentaries and children’s books, and placed witness stones at former properties to ensure these names are remembered.

@abc27news

#SDoLPA #SDoLProud #education #lancasterpa #blackhistorymonth by @aahsscpa

We did more than raise a flag. We lifted history and responsibility into the winter air.

Black History Month is often spoken about in national terms, but today reminded us that Black history lives right here. It lives in Lancaster’s streets, churches, schools, neighborhoods, and institutions.

From Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith, whose courage helped define Lancaster’s role in the Underground Railroad, to modern leaders like Nelson Polite and Ron Ford, the Black community has shaped this city through generations of leadership and vision.

Today’s flag raising marked Black History Month and the 100th anniversary of its national recognition. What began in 1926 as Negro History Week, created by Carter G. Woodson to ensure Black contributions were not ignored, grew because the story demanded more space. That truth still stands.

Black history is American history. It’s woven into the foundation of this country and rooted deeply in Lancaster.

Today’s proclamation recognized that legacy and also named a responsibility. Education matters. Teaching Black history provides context and truth. When history is challenged or minimized, education becomes an act of care and truth telling. But remembrance alone isn’t enough.

As we celebrate Black History Month, we’re also asked to recommit to action. To policies and practices that honor those who came before us. To showing up not only in February or on Juneteenth, but consistently. Community change happens through participation, advocacy, and sustained commitment.

This gathering was made possible through the leadership and collaboration of the @lancaster_naacp , the @aahsscpa and @aacalancaster. Their work ensures these stories are preserved and that future generations have a foundation to build upon.

Today, the flag rose. The work continues.

#lancasterpa #blackhistorymonth #community #blackhistory #supportlocal by @aahsscpa