Mapping Courage: Honoring W.E.B. Du Bois and Engine #11
The scene is painted on the wall of Engine #11, a historical African-American firehouse. W.E.B. Du Bois is depicted observing a city scene with a census in his hand. Dr. Du Bois, the first African-American to earn a doctorate from Harvard and a founder of the NAACP, was invited by the University of Pennsylvania department of sociology in 1896 to conduct a survey of blacks living in Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward. The study, which was the first scientific study of race, served as the basis for his classic 1899 paper, The Philadelphia Negro.
Client: Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Lead Artist: Willis “Nomo” Humphrey
Location: 6th and South St, Philadelphia, PA
Date: 2008
Press:
https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/volumes/v57/n31/murals.html
