3,000 African Americans Buried Beneath South Philly Playground

In the Queen Village neighborhood of South Philadelphia are the forgotten remains of an estimated 3,000 African-Americans.

The stone of Amelia Brown, who died April 3, 1819

     This week in South Philly , a team of archaeologists broke the asphalt in four places at Weccecoe Park, digging to a depth of 3 feet to uncover evidence of the 19th century burial site. On Thursday morning, the fourth and final trench revealed a single gravestone.

"Amelia Brown, 1819, Aged 26 years" is clearly carved into the white stone, with this epitaph:

"Whosoever live and believeth in me, though we be dead, yet shall we live."
"There is no grave shaft associated with that stone, it's just sitting loose in the fill," said Douglas Mooney, senior archaeologist for URS corporation. "It was knocked over at some point, long ago, when the cemetery was filled in in the mid-19th century. It no longer marks an actual grave. It's just a loose stone in the ground."
     Mooney and his team found evidence of many grave shafts, and stone walls representing the border of the cemetery. They have been digging to determine exactly where the cemetery limits are, and how far down. The team stopped digging several feet shy of where actual bones could be.
     Amelia Brown was likely a member of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, the oldest African-American church in the country. At the time, the late 18th century, cemeteries in Philadelphia would not accept black people.

     Also at the time, the property near Fourth and Queen streets was not within Philadelphia city limits, so Mother Bethel A.M.E. bought it as a private cemetery in 1810 and used it as such until 1864.

     Then the property languished, was abandoned, was used as a dump. In 1888, the property was sold to the city to pay for a new church that's still in use today. The site lay vacant a few more years until the city developed a playground on it.

By then the memory of the dead had faded smooth. Mother Bethel Church left nothing behind to mark the burial site.

Full Story: NBCPhiladelphia.com
Site: Allinphilly.com

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Fake cops attempt to rob Philly jewelry store

2 Fake Cops Try To Rob Platinum Jewelers

Two men are seen on video walking into a Center City jewelry store looking like law enforcement officers. The word ‘police’ can be seen on what appears to be bulletproof vests.
The real police say the men walked into Platinum Jewelers at 12th and Market Streets around noon Monday and tried to rob the place.  At first glance, one would think this crime was the work of just two men. But Philadelphia Police say it looks like they had some help.
Just minutes before the masked men entered the business, two customers, both seen in surveillance pictures wearing wigs, acting like they were shopping, at times on the phone.
Employees now believe they were speaking with the police impersonators, who were waiting for the signal to come in.
Once the robbers were inside, a female employee pressed the alarm. The man in the black vest moved behind the counter with his gun out.
But realizing they probably didn’t have much time, the fake cops took off without getting a dime or one piece of jewelry.
Employees say all four men jumped into an older model gray Mercury Grand Marquis.
The car had a Pennsylvania tag that police figured out was stolen off another vehicle in Mount Airy.

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Women Charged With Assault, DUI in Oxford Circle Crash

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     2 Children and 2 Aldults injured DUI In Oxford Circle.

Police have charged Erika Williams with DUI after crashing into a group of people in the Oxford Circle section of Philadelphia and injuring 2 adults and 2 children. 

     She was on her way home from a barbecue in Kensington where she was involved in a argument with a couple of people.

     The crash happened roughly around 11:00 p.m. Saturday on the 900 block of Anchor Street.

     Her vehicle struck a 5-year-old girl, her 2-year-old brother and their 36-year-old mother.The family, from New Jersey, was at a birthday party on the block. A fourth woman was also struck.

Source: abc.com
Site: Allinphilly.com