The Wind Beneath the Wings 🪽🦋🕊️

In the photo African American workers attend an employee appreciation event at Strawbridge & Clothier Department store in Philadelphia, 1951.

Strawbridge’s was located at 801 Market Street & was one of the major department stores in Philadelphia.

For many years, elevator operators were the only Black faces that customers would see. The kitchen of the elegant Corinthian Room was staffed with African American women who worked behind the scenes.

Black men labored as maintenance workers, janitors, or in stockrooms.

(Photo courtesy of Hagley Museum & Library, Delaware)