Let’s travel back in time to 2020, the year the world shut down as coronavirus spread. I was sixteen years old, a sophomore in high school. Suddenly, my friends and I no longer communicated in the cafeteria during lunchtime or on the way to class. Our lives moved online.

I may not have a vote, but I do have a voice, and I intend to use it. Encouraging others to engage in the democratic process became my way of contributing, even if indirectly, to US democracy. For every person I convinced to register or to show up at the polls, I felt like I was speaking up for those of us left out. 

Every evening on my walk from Drexel’s library, I watch packed SEPTA buses pass by. Many are packed with healthcare workers from nearby hospitals and riders returning from medical appointments. Many are packed with students returning from college. Others are traveling to restaurants in Center City or a Flyers game. Over 750,000 rides are taken on public transit daily through SEPTA.

I used to wish my parents had forged the date on my birth certificate. Or at the very least, I’d been born two weeks earlier. 

Each day, another 50 or so 17-year-olds in Philadelphia turn 18, and soon it’ll be time to hand them the keys.

Deja Kilgore sits across from me at Philadelphia City Hall, leaning in with a quiet confidence, poised for our conversation.

I spoke with The Philadelphia Citizen’s Executive Editor about her experience editing and writing for The Citizen.

Preventing residents from exercising their constitutional right is unacceptable

At the Vote That Jawn press conference, student leaders from across Philadelphia and city officials reminded voters that their voice matters

The upcoming election carries a lot of weight for Philly, the biggest city in one of the biggest swing states.

Eight University of Pennsylvania students who attended Trend that Jawn offered their reflections from the evening.

At their annual event, #VoteThatJawn encourages young people to register and vote!

Today, we’ll dive into the ongoing legacy of Philadelphia, part of a long line of efforts to liberate people from oppression.

By Rae Norman Imagine a school that teaches “young people to function productively and meaningfully in society, or [gives] them the tools...

No one outside of its residents had ever really heard of the small Mississippi town before June 1964. That’s when the stories began.

Today in 2024, we find ourselves at the 60-year anniversary of some of the most influential few months of the Civil Rights Movement.

“Blacks [do] everything. Everything,” Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, declared in awe. And it was true.

It was June 21, 1964 and James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner were setting out for Philadelphia, Mississippi

Freedom Summer volunteers had an orientation; here’s yours.

We woke up to a new world. But no worries,  we’ve got this 

There were many times I wasn’t allowed to leave the house because of demonstrations happening downtown.

By Cassidy Whaley Over the years I've come to realize a striking truth: in school, students often spend as much time questioning the...

By Hannah Chang This blog is not a rallying cry to go out and vote. It’s trying to think about the vote. What makes it so great? Well,...

Isabel Engel provides ways to get your friends out and to the polls during election season!