This collection honors Media entrepreneur and real estate developer Eva Winters Johnson (1918-2004), a pioneering African American woman from Birmingham, Alabama, who moved to Chester, PA in 1939 to join her sister and seek better life opportunities. The bulk of the photographs in the collection were taken in Media and Cheyney, Pennsylvania between the 1950s and the 1980s.
Eva’s first job in Pennsylvania involved commuting from Chester to Media where she worked as a domestic making $2 dollars a day. She soon managed to save enough to rent a room in Media. On the weekends she earned extra money by cooking and selling homemade meals. With her savings she bought a used pick-up truck and started an informal hauling and moving business. Then she invested in a commercial moving license. Business expanded and the company began receiving contracts from the railroad and more local businesses to pick up and deliver goods. In 1943, Eva named the company Winters Moving and Storage, buying more trucks and hiring more employees over the years.
In the 1950s Eva expanded into the real estate market, buying and renovating properties to sell and rent. Eventually she constructed brand new apartment buildings in Media, including the Winchester Apartments on East Jefferson Street. In the 1960s she bought a farm in Cheyney. Eva rented out the farmhouse but kept the barn and outbuildings for her own cows, sheep, horses, and other farm animals.
In addition to managing the businesses, and raising her three children, Johnson (Junior), Ivory Pearl (Zazu), and Eva Deliah, Eva was an active member of the community. She helped local children in need and in the 1960s participated in a joint program between the Media Fellowship House and the NAACP to foster young Black men from Virginia so they could complete their high school educations safely. The Delaware County Daily Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Essence magazine wrote articles about her work and business acumen. She received multiple civic awards as well as awards and acknowledgment for her lifetime membership and support of the NAACP.
