Committee Descriptions
The following information describes the purpose and main goal of each committee. Updates are completed regularly as the project and committees expand.
Direct Action
Committee
Coordinator: Debbie Wei
(Co-Founder of Asian American United)
The Direct Action Committee is to broaden the local petition drive through social media locally, nationally, and internationally. The committee must follow the following steps in sequence to communicate the support of the descendants of the Black Bottom and disable the University of Pennsylvania's expansion into the Black Bottom and the damage that it causes:
Stage 1: Reach out to students and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. Identify student and faculty leaders to launch a petition on the campus and get 5%-10% of the student and faculty population to support the initiatives of the descendants of the Black Bottom to disable the University of Pennsylvania’s expansion into the Black Bottom and the damage it caused. Then depending on what progress is made, move to stage two.
Stage 2: Reach out to the students and faculty at colleges and universities throughout Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. Identify student and faculty leaders to launch a petition on their campus and get 5%-10% of the student and faculty population to support the initiatives of the descendants of the Black Bottom to disable the University of Pennsylvania’s expansion into the Black Bottom and the damage it caused. Then depending on progress move to stage three.
Stage 3: Reach out to students and faculty at colleges and universities in the Delaware Valley. Identify student and faculty leaders to launch a petition on their campus and get 5%- 10% of the students and faculty to support the initiatives of the descendants of the Black Bottom to disable the University of Pennsylvania’s expansion into the Black Bottom and the damage that it caused. Then depending on progress move to stage four.
Stage 4: Reach out to students and faculty at colleges and universities nationally. Identify student and faculty leaders to launch a petition on their campus and get 5% - 10% of the students and faculty to support the initiatives of the descendants of the Black Bottom to disable the University of Pennsylvania’s expansion into the Black Bottom and the damage that it caused. Then, depending on progress, move to stage five.
Stage 5: Reach out to students and faculty at colleges and universities internationally. Identify student and faculty leaders to launch a petition on their campus and get 5%-10% of the students and faculty to support the initiatives of the descendants of the Black Bottom to disable the University of Pennsylvania’s expansion into the Black Bottom and the damage that it caused.
Black Bottom Negotiating Committee
Coordinator: Jamie Gauthier (Philadelphia Councilwoman for District 3
This group will select a team to meet with the University of Pennsylvania's Board of Trustees, President, and Provost. The committee's responsibility is to disable the University of Pennsylvania’s expansion into the Black Bottom and the damage it caused to human life and property. Collectively, the goal is to examine how the university and its partners can reach out to former residents and their descendants to make reparations. This committee will report back to the organization about the outcome of the negotiations and get feedback and input.
Black Bottom Elders Committee
Coordinator: Mary Hill
(Senior Citizen Resident of the Black Bottom)
The Black Bottom Elders Committee will represent the former residents and their descendants that lived in the Black Bottom between 1950 and 1970. The Philadelphia Citywide 50 + 1 Committee in support of the Black Bottom is a broad-based group composed of people of every walk of life, i.e., lawyers, doctors, educators, businesses, elected officials, government, social activists, etc. This group represents every facet of Philadelphia and pledges themselves and their networks in support of the petition to recognize and repay the Black Bottom residents between 1950 and 1970, as well as their descendants.
The Communications and Publicity Committee
Coordinator: Melissa McCleery (Communication and Press)
The responsibility of the education, publication, and press group is to gather information on the authority of the Black Bottom and its struggle with the University of Pennsylvania. They are to keep the public (local, national, and international) informed in general and, more specifically, the colleges and universities who can lend their voices to this cause.
The Political
Committee
Coordinator: Jamie Gauthier (Philadelphia Councilwoman for District 3
The political committee is composed of present and past members of the political establishment, who are committed to using their political power to help get justice for the Black Bottom.
Black Bottom Specialty Committees
The Specialty Committee is composed of individuals and organizations who have understood the responsibility of telling the Black Bottom story through history, archeology, theater, technology, music, art, dance, and drama .
Music, Art, Dance,
& Drama Committee
Coordinator: Brent White and Karen Palmer
The Music, Art, Dance & Drama Committee is formed to use music, art, dance, & drama for storytelling of the Black Bottom. This committee produces theatrical performances that help the Black Bottom story and memorialize the former community. It is through music, art, dance, & drama that the Black Bottom will live forever.
Penn Student Coordinating/Education Committee
Coordinator: Toyosi Abu
The Penn Student Coordinating Committee identifies students and faculty that will represent the school of law, medicine, education, arts and sciences, Wharton, engineering, social work, dentistry, Annenberg, school of design, music, and veterinary. These students or faculty are responsible for gaining student and faculty support from their respective schools for the former residents and descendants of the Black Bottom.
Social Media
Committee
Coordinator: Nicole Babiarz
(Social Media Coordinator)
The Social Media Committee is dedicated to making sure that the Black Bottom story is told on multiple social media platforms. This committee helps to continually recruit new support locally, nationally, and internationally.
Black Bottom Legal Committee
Black Bottom Legal Committee is composed of members of the legal establishment including, but not limited to lawyers, law students, law clerks, legal administrators, paralegals, law professors, etc. This committee will examine and provide legal expertise on the ways the law can be used to support the Black Bottom in achieving its goals.
Black Bottom
Virtual Tour
Coordinator: Glenn Muschio (Professor at Drexel University)
The Virtual Tour of the Black Bottom is to recreate as many of the commercial and residential properties and sites as possible of the Black Bottom, where the University of Pennsylvania resides.
The Historic Marker Committee
Coordinator: Edward Epstein (Director of the Philadelphia Teacher's Institute)
This committee is composed of people interested in memorializing the history and memories of the Black Bottom by having a historic marker located on the northwest corner of 36th and Market St., Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
The Anthropology -Archaeology Committee
Coordinator: Megan Kasselbaum (University of Pennsylvania Director of the Department of Archeology)
The Anthropology - Archeology Committee is composed of members of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and has created an archeological work site in the Black Bottom. This group is working on behalf and in conjunction with the Black Bottom to help further provide evidence of the Black Bottom's history.
The Black
Bottom Tribe
Coordinator: Sid Bolling (Chairman of the Black Bottom Tribe)
The Black Bottom Tribe is composed of some former members of the Black Bottom and other supporters. They host an annual Black Bottom picnic, programs, and other events that memorialize the Black Bottom.
African/Caribbean
Committee
Coordinator: Stanley Straughter (Chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on African and Caribbean Affairs)
An outreach group designed to connect with African and Caribbean citizens in Philadelphia and around the world to support the Black Bottom.
International Support
Committee
This committee reaches out across the African diaspora to support the Black Bottom initiatives.
African Slavery Museum Committee
Coordinator: Joe Ragsdale
(Lest We Forget Museum Slavery)
The Black African Holocaust in America is a reminder of the two-hundred and fifty years of Black African chattel slavery and the additional one hundred and fifty years of Jim Crow, sharecropping, peonage, and prison leasing, of communities of Black Americans.
Black Bottom Research Committee
Coordinator: Professor Laura Wolf Powers
(Hunter University)
This committee investigates and researches histories of the Black Bottom and the displaced communities in Philadelphia, around the state of Pennsylvania, and the United States.
This committee is composed of people interested in memorializing the history and memories of the Black Bottom by having a historic marker located on the northwest corner of 36th and Market St., Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
Black Bottom Reunion Committee
Coordinator: Karen Palmer
Started in 1975 and held in Philadelphia Fairmount Park is the oldest and largest running reunion in Philadelphia history.
Black Bottom Virtual Support Committee
This committee identifies and coordinates support efforts from people and organizations across the United States, to support the Black Bottom.