Elmwood

Elmwood is a neighborhood in the Southwest section of Philadelphia. It borders the city line with Delaware County at Cobbs Creek, and extends to the Schuylkill River. The Eastwick neighborhood borders it to the southwest, and Kingsessing borders it on the northeast. Poles and Irish Americans had long been the majority in the neighborhood, organized around Catholic parishes established throughout the early to mid 20th century. In 1985, Mayor Wilson Goode declared a state of emergency as white rioters demonstrated outside two houses in Elmwood, creating an "imminent danger of civil disturbance." One home had been sold to an African-American family and the other to an interracial couple. Between 1990 and 2000, the white population decreased by 57.39% while the African American population increased by 55.40%. Vietnamese American refugees and West African immigrants have joined African Americans in making today's Elmwood a more racially diverse neighborhood as the white population decreases.