My name is Zhangyang (Charlie) Xie, and I am an undergraduate student majoring in Africana Studies and Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. During my summer internship at the Center for Preservation of Civil Rights Sites, I worked as a research assistant with a primary focus on the Henry Ossawa Tanner residence in the western section of north Philadelphia, the life and work of Sadie Tanner Mossell and Raymond Pace Alexander, as well as various additional African American civil rights sites and events in Philadelphia. I gained valuable property and archival research experience through this internship by working with institutions such as the Philadelphia City Archives, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. I also broadened my knowledge of African American history in Philadelphia through a detailed exploration of the success, struggles, and strife of prominent Black Philadelphians. I believe understanding African American history such as that of civil rights is particularly important for the residents of Philadelphia, temporary or permanent. It serves as the basis on which we deal with institutional racism, uplift historically disadvantaged groups, and, perhaps more importantly, try to understand and appreciate each other with whom we share the city. Preservation of civil rights sites allows us to create centers of calculation, in Bruno Latour’s words, that serve pivotal functions in the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge regarding African American history.