- [Announcer] Major funding for this program was provided by... - To work is around 600,000.

- In part of the community.

- That allow us.

- Here are.

(people indistinctly chattering) - [Woman] The northwest community of West Philadelphia.

- [Woman] That I had to tell about my community.

- [Man] People were saying, I'm here, I'm alive, I exist.

(pensive ambient music) (pensive ambient music continues) (pensive ambient music continues) (pensive ambient music continues) (gentle music) - Today, in America, we are people sitting outside the gates.

When you outside the gate, the problems are great and you don't know what to do.

Don't just sit there and complain and find fault with what people have done to you.

But get up and do something about your problem.

(reflective music) - Opening day was pivotal.

It was people seated all out on the parking lot.

Dignitaries were here.

That day was just a big day in, not just North Philadelphia, but in Philadelphia, period.

People were here to congratulate and commend Dr. Sullivan for the opening of the first urban shopping center, owned and operated by Blacks.

- I was here when it opened that day I was here, I was here, my parents brought me up in 1968 and actually had an opportunity to shake hands with Reverend Sullivan who was in the crowd with many, many people from the neighborhood, Yorktown and Jefferson Manor and all over the city.

- I think what the Progress Plaza did was teach us that we could do it.

The power of the collective.

It was a collaboration.

You know, we start off, you know, with the church, right, with other people wanting to become shareholders and invest.

There was public private partnerships, right?

You know with the Ford Foundation and General Motors, right?

And so the reason why the power of the collective is so important because that was part of our origin.

- One could say that Progress Plaza is a byproduct of the selective patronage campaign.

Three young men in South Philadelphia got in trouble and somehow Dr. Sullivan learned that they had too much time on their hands, didn't have any jobs.

That kind of had a ripple effect, if you would, because they didn't have jobs because nobody would hire them.

He wanted us to be able to say, if I can't work there, I won't patronize you.

And that was the essence of Selective Patronage.

- Plaza was built in 1968 and the 10-36 concept came along like '62, '64.

Bill Downes, and Mable Wellborn, and Marilyn, they worked in that office collecting 10-36 money.

- Both of my parents joined, so they are shareholders in the project of Sullivan Progress Plaza.

I'm passionate about Sullivan Progress Plaza because of their passion.

- Now the 10-36 plan, at that time, was you send $10 a month for 36 months and we had to struggle and we had to sacrifice to give up.

But his plan was so needed, and we as members of the church wanted to help as much as we could.

We had to start somewhere and it started with us.

- We built it ourselves.

6,000 of us put $10 down for 36 months to build this Progress Plaza, of shopping centers, housing developments and some factors around us.

Ducky Birks here is himself a businessman that started with small resources but has proven that the community will support Black entrepreneurs.

So the setting is not something we had to borrow.

Didn't have to ask him if somebody would come in.

This is our own.

So that has a psychological impact also.

- It's the work that Reverend Solomon did to help create the collective economic approach to it, so that we may not be a millionaire, but I got resources that I can go to, to seek assistance and provide help.

Even the microenterprise funds now and even the crowd financing, it's the same thing except that the technology has allowed them to go forth now.

Now at that time in the seventies under president Richard Nixon, there was an organization called MBDA, Minority Business Development Agency, and it funded organizations like Entrepreneur Development Training Centers to provide training to entrepreneurs.

We had a training center in there.

- [Leroy] We put you to work!

And if you go to work, you don't have to stay up at night getting into trouble.

You gotta get up so you can go to work in the morning.

(crowd exclaiming) The best program against crime, crime is work!

Get a man that wanna do work!

Work jobs, jobs, jobs!

(pensive music) (pensive music continues) (pensive music continues) - The one thing that he was adamant about and he said it every time we met, Brother Whitlock, I want a supermarket on Progress Plaza.

- I was about 10-years-old in 1968 when the Plaza was first open.

I shopped here because this is where the C bus would bring you.

Then I got old enough to drive.

I thought that you get better bargains, better opportunities outside of the community.

- When the supermarket shut down, that was the only market we had in the area and by it closing, it was almost like the plaza had closed.

This part of history had closed, our part of history.

We didn't have a place to get fresh food to shop.

This supermarket in Progress Plaza was special because it was a part of history.

We had to save it at all costs.

- My name is Shante Sterns.

I work at the Progress Plaza, Fresh Grocer.

During the evening, most of the staff are minors.

What I mean by minors, they started out like this is like their first job.

- Hi, my name's Shaquan Carroll.

I'm 24-years-old now.

Got the job when I was 17.

My dad helped me get the job 'cause he wanted me to stay outta trouble.

They seen that I was real good on the register.

So they had me move up to be like a front-end runner.

Then when I turned 18, they moved me to bookkeeping.

I want to work at a bank to be a bookkeeper.

- My name is Latoya Ross and I am the manager of Trend Eyecare II.

So one of my biggest success stories is the fact that 40% of my staff is formerly incarcerated.

They tend not to get another chance.

Some of them never had a job before.

And I'm a very, very tough trainer.

And I believe that if you want a second chance, I'm willing to give it to you, but you're gonna work for it.

- [Leno] I grew up coming to this plaza as a kid.

When we see our peers, maybe family members, it's a pleasant surprise for them to see us.

It does take a lot of hard work.

It doesn't happen overnight.

A lot of dedication, a lot of sacrifices.

Just know that if you commit to some of those requirements, you could do some good.

- One of the things that enhances Black economic empowerment is a community that's aware of the importance of Black economic empowerment and participates actively in its development.

The Greater Yorktown community has been an ardent, ferocious, helpful supporter of our efforts here.

- It became the anchor to Yorktown homes.

Yorktown was our Levittown.

- I actually grew up in North Philadelphia and when you look back to it, that is where the roots come from.

Big money had came into North Philadelphia, then we were able to get housing done.

Yeah, we were able to get quite a bit.

- We're on our way and we are gonna get there.

The door of free enterprise is cracking down, but we are gonna push and push until it's wide open and we're not gonna stop until 25 million Black people across this country have Black pride knowing that what a white man can do, a Black man can do too.

And we're gonna prove that we can do it by the kinds of things being demonstrated here in Philadelphia!

- Week after week, Black people earn money and go outside of the community and spend it.

Progress Plaza here now allows us to shop in the community and get good stuff.

- When people realize that positive efforts are being made not by others to help them, but by efforts of themselves to help and develop their own community, I think that they will see more hope (echoes).

(reflective music) (pensive rhythmic music) (gentle pensive music) (pensive rhythmic music) (no audio) - Primarily, my role was aiding in capturing some of the research material to talk about the story of the Sullivan Progress Plaza 'cause I was the original author of the nomination for the historic marker that was approved for Sullivan Progress Plaza.

So I had some awareness of the history.

Currently on the board of Leon Sullivan Charitable Trust, we are one of the several entities established by Reverend Leon Sullivan, and Sullivan Progress Plaza is another one of those entities.

I am also a member, grew up in Zion Baptist Church.

So again, that's a connection.

- I, too, am a member of Zion Baptist Church.

I am chairman of the trustee board presently.

My father, the late Elmer Young Jr., was the project manager for the development of Progress Plaza.

And once it opened, he became the manager, the first manager of Progress Plaza.

In fact, we believe that he was the first Black manager of a shopping center in all of America.

As part of the Sullivan Legacy, this being, again, the first shopping center in America owned by Black folks, it's important to maintain that type of legacy.

It's important for people to know what has been done by Black people.

So anytime that we can boost up the legacy of the Lion, I call Sullivan the Lion, we try to do so.

- It's still standing even amidst different challenges over the years.

But to be the first and to still survive through that, we can provide this example to the community today on ways that if you're working together, you can still succeed.

- What better opportunity, while celebrating the hundredth birthday of the Lion to bring out for everyone, all of the things that he was responsible for, Progress Plaza being one.

- Anytime you hear Reverend Sullivan, it should make you think about, "Wow, why can't we do that now?"

Which is what you hear a lot in the community when they hear about some of the things that was taking place in the sixties and seventies.

- This was a social significant project and you don't even understand it necessarily when you're in it.

It takes time to understand the significance of what you've done, what you've participated in.

So we want that excitement to be transferred to the younger generation, and hopefully, they'll be able to create memories and excitement of their own.

(upbeat jazzy music) - [Cynthia] Pine Forge is a sacred place.

Out of all of the children in the world, they were the ones that God had ordained to be on this campus.

("Pine Forge Alma Mater") - [Narrator] Long before Pine Forge Academy's campus became home to its sons and daughters, its rolling green hills nestled in Burgess County, Pennsylvania were stewarded by the Lenni Lenape people.

("Pine Forge Alma Mater") Thomas Rutter, an abolitionist iron miller, later occupied the 575 acre land, which was deeded to him by William Penn in the early 1700s.

("Pine Forge Alma Mater") Several of the original buildings still stand and have a rich history.

The Manor House has been said to have once been a resting place for George Washington.

("Pine Forge Alma Mater") The property where generations of Black children have learned and grown freely was used as a refuge during slavery as a safe place for those journeying to freedom on the underground railroad.

("Pine Forge Alma Mater") - 1945, when the opportunity came for them to sell this land, they elected to sell it to the small group of people who wanted to establish a school.

The enterprise, I say, was led by two women, Dr. Grace Kimbrough came with the group of men, the president of the conference and whatnot, to view the land.

But also the family, the lady who was selling the property was so impressed that she gave the first seed money of 2,500.

Dr. Kimbrel matched it.

From that start, I believe that was like April of '45 until '46, when the school opened, they were able to raise all of the money and purchased.

That was quite a feat for 1945 for a group of Black people.

Back then we were colored people, but for a group of Black people to actually end up owning.

Some of our neighbors were not quite so pleased because many other people had wanted to acquire this rich land.

This is the only African American enterprise owned and operated by African Americans in the Seventh Day Adventist denomination.

We're the only organization and institution that has always been under the ownership and leadership of African Americans.

And it was established because at the time, our children were permitted in some of the other schools no matter what denomination it was.

And so our forefathers started (indistinct), to establish a place where children could come in safety.

And you still had a lot of northern Blacks who were not comfortable sending their children to the South and so Elder Wagner determined to open the school here.

- My journey started with this bell at the Trinity Temple Seventh Day Adventist Church in Newark, New Jersey, 1946.

Coming down here on an old truck that the conference had at the time, it was an old green truck.

And three other students came along with me, Virginia Barrett, Isaac Richardson, and myself, was three of us.

And so along with my suitcase and whatever else my mother had packed, we came with this bell.

(bell chimes) And it meant so much to us because again, at that time, we didn't have cars.

And so my mom was very glad to know that I could come to school and have a ride.

And so this bell means a lot to me.

- Pioneer students are always reverenced and revered among students and staff.

They were the first to experience Pine Forge Academy.

Ms. Gloria Davis is a huge inspiration in so many ways.

Number one, she's so energetic and vibrant and when she speaks of the school that she loves, she does so, so genuinely.

- The first day when we all met in the manor house, the girls, and to just see students coming from different places and it was just a lovely thing to having that first day.

Nobody didn't seem to be homesick or whatever.

They just felt good being there together.

It was three of us in a room.

And they have a bathroom, too.

So we had a bathroom and three rooms that we shared and the dean was down in the hall.

And this was the worship room.

- Hmm.

- This is where we had worship.

And that is my room!

The biggest gift I can say they give us, the spiritual part of our growth because of having worship three times a day, having teachers that you could look up to as Christian men and women, they let us know from the way they treated us, there was a God and there was comradery and love between the students and the teachers.

(choir singing) (choir singing continues) - This is where, see where's the clearing there?

That was where the old barn that we made to a chapel.

But I guess if we ride down, we could get closer.

I don't know whether you wanna do that or not.

That was the old church that was made from a, they remodeled it and made it a church, from a barn.

The cook that came from Philadelphia and she used to, they had one roommate at the time.

And so they'd bring the big pots and the stuff over here to serve us.

But they cooked over here 'cause they had no place to cook here.

So we was just served here, all right?

And then of course, this ends up being the girl's dorm upstairs.

This was a barn where the two horses were.

We had two horses, Mollie and and Dick.

And they were in the barn.

(chuckles) And of course, me being from the city, I'm gonna get on this horse.

And you know what?

That horse threw me off.

They said "Gloria, don't get on the horse."

But you know, being city slick, I fell.

The steps are right there.

And we walked across.

We had to go across the road and I wanted to show you where we went to school.

It was just some stones there, but you can see it.

- Hmm hmm, in your photo.

- Yeah and I wanted you girls, can you walk?

- Yeah, as a matter- Do you feel comfortable?

- I feel comfortable.

Okay, now you can see the steps.

Can you see the steps?

- Hmm hmm.

- These are the steps that we would come from the dorm and come down through here and go straight out.

And the chapel was over there at the clearing, as I told you before.

Over here to my left, there's the chapel.

You see what I'm talking about?

- Yes.

- Can you see brick?

- Yes.

(crickets chirping) - It's phenomenal.

The friendships that we had here, it still goes on.

It's about 23 of us still living.

Wherever they are, we still keep in contact.

That camaraderie goes on and on and on until eternity.

And we always say, when we stop talking to each other sometime, we'll meet you in the kingdom.

Well, we're gonna have a place where Pine Forge is just gonna meet in a certain part of heaven.

(chuckles) ("Pine Forge Alma Mater") ("Pine Forge Alma Mater") ("Pine Forge Alma Mater") ("Pine Forge Alma Mater") ("Pine Forge Alma Mater") ("Pine Forge Alma Mater") ("Pine Forge Alma Mater") ("Pine Forge Alma Mater") - Pine Forge Academy is home for me in many ways.

When I was 15-years-old, I went to Pine Forge Academy as a student during my 11th grade year.

And I enjoyed my time there being a part of its various arts programs and just being in a school where it was such a beautiful campus.

And when I was 26-years-old, I went back to Pine Forge Academy and I served there as a guidance counselor and I was able to serve the community that did such a great deal in my upbringing.

So it was a beautiful homecoming.

And I do look at Pine Forge as a second home.

Now, my role in creating the film was, in one part, gathering the community, being that it's about an hour away from Philadelphia.

And also creatively, I'd say, I did a bit of direction and storytelling when it came to how we were gonna tell Pine Forge Academy's story to reflect that of a precious place.

Our production facilitator, Erica Hawkins, she became a part of Pine Forge Academy's family and was very invested in researching and ensuring that the story was told in an authentic way.

Pine Forge Academy being one of four historically Black boarding academies in the country, or remaining in the country, it's very important to be highlighted because many people don't know it exists.

And it is a place where many individuals who come from all walks of life come together as brothers and sisters to learn and to grow.

And they are not only taught for college and post-secondary school, but they're taught to be servants to the world.

And I say that meaning servants as in individuals who can lead, who can speak up, and to ensure that they're able to serve their communities, serve their churches, serve their artistic communities, and to be an active participant in the lives of those around them.

Just about a month ago during our alumni weekend, 2023, we were able to share the film with Ms. Gloria Davis and her family right on Pine Forge Academy's campus for a small screening.

And the alum that were there, and Ms. Gloria Davis, who was able to see herself at 92-years-old, on screen, and to receive all the love and admiration from students and alum, it was a beautiful experience.

So it seems as if the school's still finding ways in 2023 to develop leaders, to allow kids to use their creativity.

I'm excited for Pine Forge Academy's future.

(upbeat music) (people indistinctly chattering) (upbeat music continues) (people exclaiming) (upbeat music) (people faintly talking) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Major funding for this program was provided by...