Investigative News: Philadelphia Mural

The following was written for an assignment for a class called "Investigative Journalism" in Winter 2021-2022.

Please note there were certain formats and content criteria for this assignment.

In this particular assignment, I had to investigate a particular topic on my campus, conduct interviews, and write an article for a news organization.

North Philadelphia Mural Dedicated to the Cecil B. Moore Freedom Fighters

A new mural commissioned by the Mural Arts of Philadelphia was completed on

November 12, 2021, by artists Felix St. Fort and Gabe Tiberino and is located on the 1700 block of 22nd Street in North Philadelphia.

The mural, which took about a year and a half to complete, had various sponsors and partners, including the City of Philadelphia, Girard College, the Jubilee School, and the Office of Pennsylvania State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta.

Originally from Dry Fork Hollow, West Virginia, Cecil Bassett Moore– or Cecil B. Moore– was a prominent defense attorney, veteran, and civil rights activist in Philadelphia during the 1960s. He even headed the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP from ‘63-’67 and was a member of the 5th District City Council from ‘76–’79.

During his tenure, Moore was known to be quite divisive despite gaining massive public support. He supposedly had a difficult relationship with Martin Luther King Jr., according to Sara A. Borden with Civil Rights in a Northern City: Philadelphia.

As a prominent figure during his time, he had several supporters and even amassed a group of people who called themselves the Freedom Fighters and helped carried out Moore’s message of freedom and equality on the streets of Philadelphia. These people, many of whom are still alive today, were able to aid Moore in various significant accomplishments, such as desegregating Girard College, according to the Cecil B Moore Freedom Fighters website.

The group was also successful in renaming Columbia Ave to “Cecil B. Moore Ave” in 1990 as well as changing the Septa stop at Broad St and Cecil B. Moore to the “Cecil B Moore Temple University” stop in ‘55.

Karen Asper Jordan, original Freedom Fighter and current President of the organization proposed the idea for a mural dedicated to the Freedom Fighters, according to Kate Jacobi, the project’s manager with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Association.

Asper Jordan had apparently received some requests from the community to do something to honor Moore and more specifically, the Freedom Fighters.

I reached out to Asper Jordan for comment but was never able to get in touch.

Photo by Steve Weinik, Mural Arts Jacobi said that the mural attempted to engage the community in its creation which is apparently typical for murals by Mural Arts of Philadelphia.“They had a whole design process, they handed out little mural kits to different

community members to include them in some smaller components– and that’s actually some of the pattern work in the finished product,” Jacobi said.

Unfortunately, the presence of Covid-19 throughout this entire process made it a little harder than usual to continue their level of involvement with the community in creating the mural but Jacobi feels they made the best with what they could.

“If the pandemic didn’t happen, we probably would have had several community paint days where we would’ve had them at maybe a local school or rec center... where people would get to help paint it,” she said.

This mural is the well-researched product of a community that cares. And now, the Freedom Fighters who fought valiantly on the streets of Philadelphia have something to remember them by.