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Few African-American families in Philadelphia have access to the emerging public water infrastructure.

1897

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W.E.B. Du Bois surveys Black families in Philadelphia between 1896 and 1897 and learns that "just under 14 percent of the families he surveyed had access to bathrooms or water closets, and many did not have access to private outhouses" (Montag, 2019).

Private homes at the time are built with large backyards for outhouses, but many landowners build tenement apartments in these backyards, doubling their rental income and destroying the possibility of adequate water and sanitation.