Tinicum & Eastwick: Environmental Justice and Racial Injustice in Southwest Philadelphia

When plans to overhaul Southwest Philadelphia in the 1950s scheduled both the integrated neighborhood of Eastwick and the ecologically valuable Tinicum marshes to be razed, two grassroots movements took up the cause—battling eminent domain in the name of environmental conservation and economic injustice.In the 1950s, city planners eager to change the face of Philadelphia had designs on the city’s southwest. They planned to raze the integrated neighborhood of Eastwick and level the ecologically valuable Tinicum marshlands to make room for a new “city within a city.” In response, two grassroots movements began a resistance that spanned decades—battling eminent domain in the name of environmental conservation and economic injustice. The Eastwick neighborhood’s resistance to the project was racially diverse and working class in nature. Led by housewives, they went toe to toe with a government bureaucracy hungry for progress. As Eastwick rallied to defend itself, a parallel grassroots effort by bird watchers desperately worked to save the embattled Tinicum marshes. These unspoiled remains of Pennsylvania’s last freshwater tidal marsh were home to hundreds of threatened species of wildlife. Amid protest marches and bomb threats, political intrigue and outrage, a question emerged that would forever influence the region. Who deserves a home: wildlife or human beings? Through oral history and exhaustive research, Tinicum & Eastwick documents one of the most egregious civil-rights violations in Pennsylvania history, as well as one of the state’s greatest environmental triumphs. Author Will Caverly confronts the intersection of eminent domain and environment, told through the struggles everyday residents of Southeastern Pennsylvania endured to pursue justice. Read more