Exploring the History of the Rural and Urban African American Communities of Franklin County, Pennsylvania

Abstract

This thesis aims to show the commonalities amongst the rural and urban African American communities of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Geographic location was an important element to these communities, but also, other elements like religion, a shared cultural identity, and racism that all had an impact on the development of these communities. This thesis is broken into two sections. The first section explores the formation and history of the rural African American communities of Brownsville and Little Africa. The second section will explore the history of the urban African American community of Chambersburg.