State evicts historic Philadelphia trade school
A trade school founded in 1899 to provide vocational training to black workers is being evicted from its state-owned building in Philadelphia.
The state ordered the Berean Institute to vacate the building that’s been its home since 1973 by Friday.
School president Lorraine Poole-Naranjo tells the Philadelphia Daily News that Berean will move to a new space and continue to operate.
Berean has struggled financially for years, saying in 2008 it lacked the money it needed to pay staffers.
In a letter last week, the state Office of the General Counsel said Berean hadn’t made any lease payments since 2006.
Berean was founded to provide blacks with vocational and business skills. Many of its students were new arrivals from the segregated South.
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