Templetown takeover threatens the legacy of Cecil B. Moore

This month is Black History Month, and lately, the legacy of one of North Philadelphia’s most prominent historical black community members has faced some threats.

It would be surprising if Temple’s student body knew who the Cecil B. Moore of the avenue and SEPTA station was, or that he essentially was Temple Made.

All of Temple’s student body should strive to be more like Cecil B. Moore.

Moore was a student, like us, who witnessed the injustices committed against the community and embarked to make certain that it remained strong, thus making the city strong as a whole.

Moore was a community organizer who, despite having been brought up in West Virginia, made his best effort to sincerely engage with the surrounding people.

Moore, who was elected president of the local chapter of the NAACP during the 1960s, led the charge to eliminate racial discrimination, whether it was in Philadelphia schools or employment.

To this day, Temple University has a problem with communicating efficiently with the surrounding community. It advertises the university as diverse, while there is not only tension between the university and the surrounding community, but there also still exists a cultural tension among the student body. Students need to recognize the voices of their peers and understand that it is incumbent upon us, the Temple collegiate community, to apply the same tactics of community uplifting Cecil B. Moore applied in combatting racial discrimination.

An intercultural dialogue on and off campus would surely change how we see each other and how we see our nation as a whole.

Around the beginning of last semester, Temple University’s administrative Department for Strategic Marketing and Communications unveiled one of its most controversial projects. The campaign, which introduced the “Temple Signage to Electrify” at the Cecil B. Moore Subway Station, seemed to be nothing more than a continuation of the university’s branding of North Philadelphia.

What some might acknowledge as the university’s ignorance towards the greater African American community, others might just call a small part of Temple’s expansion and creation of wider gentrification.

One civil rights organization would certainly agree. The group called the Cecil B. Moore Freedom Fighters has indeed made note of Temple’s incompetence with regards to recognizing civil rights advocacy.

When Temple signs were plastered along the entrances of the subway station, the Cecil B. Moore Freedom Fighters came to the forefront in defense of their namesake, claiming that Temple’s “electrifying” campaign “overshadows” that for which the station was commemorated.

SEPTA assistant general manager Fran Kelly regarded the Temple signs a “mistake.”

A few years ago, Cecil B. Moore’s very image, portrayed in a colorful mural, was covered up by a new establishment and proprietor of North Philly gentrification, luxury student apartments along 17th Street and Cecil B. Moore Ave.

The question still stands, however, how the university was even able to project itself upon the only subway station in all of Philadelphia that’s named after an individual, without including any Philly civil rights activist groups in the planning.

Back around the beginning of last semester the university announced that along with the signage it would also be including “more prominent displays to commemorate the legacy of civil rights leader Cecil B. Moore, LAW ‘53.” They even acknowledged his efforts to integrate Girard College in the 1960s. One could only wonder, well, It’s 2016, so where is the commemoration of Cecil B. Moore?

Did Temple even plan on displaying one?