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Information About

Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania




Grays Ferry is a Neighborhood in South Philadelphia bounded by 25th Street on the east, the Schuylkill River on the west, Vare Avenue on the south, and Grays Ferry Avenue on the north. The neighborhood's name dates back to the 1970s.


HISTORY



DEMOGRAPHICS

  • Black - 56%; White - 39%; 5% - Other.

  • More than 30 percent of the residents are under 18.

  • Currently the neighborhood, which represents less than 1 percent of the city’s population, houses more than 10 percent of the city’s Section 8 residents.



RACIAL TENSION

Over the years the neighborhood has been the scene of numerous instances of racial violence. The Irish Catholics living in the neighborhood's modest Row Homes clashed with Afican Americans living in the deteriorating Tasker Housing Project. There were riots and beatings and, sometimes, killings. Tensions peaked in 1997, when Nation Of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan joined marchers to protest racial violence. As the housing market has boomed in Philadelphia, the neighborhood has begun to see some resurgence.


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