African Americans of Wilmington's East Side

Wilmington's East Side is the oldest residential community in the city. The first Swedish colony settled there in the 1600s, and over time, Jewish, Polish, and African American people followed. By the mid-1950s, the East Side emerged as a predominantly Black, achievement-oriented community--a place where working-class families, Black-owned businesses, and Black doctors, lawyers, teachers, musicians, and community leaders lived, worshipped, and worked together amid segregation. Among historic lan