Picture this: DuBois mural graces the streets of the Seventh Ward

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words - and that's what Amy Hillier, a Penn assistant professor in City & Regional Planning, is hoping to show through a mural honoring the writings of civil rights activist W.E.B DuBois.

The brainchild of Hillier, the mural is being painted on 6th and South Streets, an area known as the Seventh Ward. One hundred years ago it was the heart of the city's and nation's black community and the subject of Du Bois' book The Philadelphia Negro, which he wrote in 1899 while on a fellowship from Penn. The University would not give him a faculty position due to his race.

The book is based on a door-to-door survey Du Bois conducted of the demographics of the Seventh Ward, which today includes some of the city's most expensive real estate.

The mural is part of Mapping Du Bois, a larger research, teaching and outreach project organized by Hillier and aimed at recreating Du Bois' survey using modern technological tools and at increasing student awareness of the book.

The scene also paid tribute to and incorporates images of Engine 11, a historically black fire station and the first and only to hire blacks at the time.

"My concern was not only that people were not reading the book but that people didn't know the Seventh Ward," said Hillier. "There should be visible symbols in neighborhood showing the vibrant black community that was there."

Hillier said she chose a mural as the medium because murals are "how people in Philadelphia celebrate their heroes," adding that she hopes the mural could also address the city's social problems.

She proposed her idea to both Penn and to the non-profit Philadelphia Mural Arts Program in late 2006. Penn declined to take on the mural, but Mural Arts agreed.

"One of the reasons why we got interested in having a mural is because so much of [Hillier's] project has to do with mapping and walking in this neighborhood," said Emily Squires, a Mural Arts Program staff member coordinating the project. She added that it was also a chance to "visually and physically ground the project in a way that could be really accessible to the public."

The mural, which costs $15-20,000, is projected to be complete by the end of the summer. The "Penn-city-artist collaboration" has also been funded $225,000 by the National Endowment for Humanities and Penn Research Foundation.

Several Penn students and faculty members are working with Hillier on the project.

"I don't think [Du Bois] gets enough recognition for what he did, and this is a very good way of spreading awareness to people who wouldn't normally be aware," said College junior Brandon Gollotti, a Philly native who has been working with Hillier to develop the project's Web site for the past few years.

Hillier is also bringing Mapping Du Bois to West Philadelphia High School by teaming up with Matt Malone, a graduate of Penn's Urban Studies program last year who currently teaches Civil Rights and African American History at the high school.

"I think it's an awesome opportunity as an African-American artist to be able to memorialize someone as great as Du Bois as well as the first African American firefighters in Philly," said Willis Humphrey, the lead muralist.

"It's good as an artist to do something with substance that at the same time many people will see," he added.

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