Credit: Courtesy of Temple University, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pa.
Born in South Carolina, Marshall Shepard moved to Philadelphia, where he became pastor of Mount Olivet Baptist Church in West Philadelphia and emerged as an important community leader. One of the first prominent black Philadelphians to leap to the Democratic party in the early 1930s, Shepard in 1936 became the first African American elected to the Pennsylvania legislature as a Democrat. He also brought jobs to West Philadelphia through WPA-funded programs. Reverend Shepard would later serve as City Recorder of Deeds and president of the National Negro Baptist Convention.
