ABSTRACT

On a crisp October day in 1968, 10,000 people gathered to mark the opening of Progress Plaza, the country’s first African-American-owned shopping center, in the Yorktown neighborhood on Broad Street in North Philadelphia. The crowd was celebrating the shopping center, anchored by a big, beautiful A&P Supermarket, which brought much-needed services and jobs to the community-and they were celebrating the strong community partnerships that made Progress Plaza possible.