The City Commissioners satellite office on Chew Ave. (Photo: Rasheed Z. Ajamu)

Germantown has always been at the forefront of civic advancement and social justice efforts.

In 1683, the founder of this neighborhood, Francis (Franz) Daniel Pastorius, negotiated a special charter with William Penn that would allow German settlers to implement an independent municipal government and establish local courts without interference from the English-dominated municipal government, almost like ending reciprocity on a hyper-local level. 

Shortly before the charter was granted, Pastorius and three other Quaker men would craft the first written petition and public protest against Slavery in what would become the United States. History notes that Pastorius also staunchly embraced language integration in an effort to better communicate with English settlers and refugees.

Franz also served as Germantown’s first Mayor (Bailiff) and representative in the “Provincial Assembly,” which was the name of the PA General Assembly pre-1776.

Germantown could be considered the first welcoming settlement in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Although slavery and indentured servitude were still prevalent and some Quakers enslaved people, in the midst of moral imperfection, the blueprint for the abolition of slavery and integration of diverse communities ultimately began here. 

In 2026, we will continue to be an anti-racist and welcoming neighborhood. We don’t have posters; we have historical markers, and we train the trainers because we’ve always had railroads. Due, in part, to more than 250 years of having the courage and doing the work.

As we are coming up on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as well as one of the most unprecedented shifts in modern government and democracy. It is important that we show up and show America what democracy looks like, as we have always done.  

Some of the biggest civic battles we are facing will directly impact the descendants of enslaved people, including voter suppression, ICE brutality, economic policy violence, and education apartheid. These are all things that Franz Pastorius would be advocating against today as the Mayor of Germantown.

It is up to us to continue the legacy of fighting for liberation and lead the way on progressive principles. There are a plethora of issues that need our attention, but a few are more immediate for the soul of our nation.

Prepare for Election Day.

First things first, you must register to vote. November 3, 2026, is election day, and midterm elections can shape the future of government for years to come. 

We will elect a Governor & Lieutenant Governor, all U.S. House members from PA, every member of the PA House, and half the PA Senate. All of these positions have the power to do things like raise the minimum wage, lower our energy bills, find funding for our schools, and advance legislation to protect our voting and civil rights.

After you check your registration status, tell your friends, family, and loved ones to register to vote. It takes about five minutes to get registered, and you will have a vote for the rest of your life.

You can also earn up to 250 dollars on election day by serving as a poll worker.

Poll workers are the backbone of election day; they can do everything from assisting with language access to helping those with disabilities cast a vote to intervening in voter intimidation situations. Without Poll Workers, our election system would ultimately fail.

The problem is that the average poll worker is over 60 years old, and we are failing to recruit younger poll workers. This election day was particularly brutal at my polling location, with it being 95 degrees and no air conditioning at the Happy Hollow Recreation Center.

There is also a need for election administration officials like judges of elections and inspectors of elections. Judges of elections are responsible for ensuring the integrity of the election operation, while inspectors are responsible for administrative tasks.

While these are elected positions, you may serve as a proxy and be paid for your services. A proxy is someone who fills in for an election administrator in case of absence. Votes cannot be counted without the certification of an elected or appointed judge of elections, so every polling location in the state must have one. 

Help protect the vote.

The Supreme Court recently decided on a case that would allow unfair lines to be drawn in majority-Black districts. Although Pennsylvania won’t draw new maps until 2030, some states are pushing to redraw maps mid-election season in an effort to gain partisan control.

Organizations that are fighting back include Fair Districts PA, the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the ACLU. You can help protect the vote in PA with Common Cause and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. 

For non-partisan voting rights programming and initiatives, you can get involved with the Committee of Seventy or the League of Women Voters. 

Many organizations that we belong to already engage in civic education and voter mobilization programming like labor unions, fraternities and sororities, churches, mosques, and synagogues, as well as cultural and civic groups like the Urban League or Haitian Americans United for Change. Sometimes these orgs will hold voter registration drives, Get Out The Vote (GOTV) events, candidates forums, and lobby days.

A lobby day is when you visit your legislators at their place of work, from municipal legislators to members of Congress, you are allowed to, and probably should, set up a meeting or office visit with the politician who represents you.

Help protect our civil liberties.

There are a number of organizations fighting for the issues we care about, from education to housing and climate justice, as well as economic justice, gender justice, and reproductive justice.

You may have heard of organizations like Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, the Human Rights Campaign, and the AFL-CIO, just to name a few.

You can engage in actions like sending postcards to voters or legislators, phone banking and text banking, or tabling at your favorite community events, as well as organizing your own community event. 

Lastly, if you want to join an organization founded by someone local, Represent Progress is a Pennsylvania-based non-profit that develops, pilots, and scales innovative projects that strengthen democracy, improve representation, expand civic participation, and create a more responsive government.

Mike Cogbill is an Organizer and Activist living in Germantown. He is the founder of Represent Progress; the organization develops and pilots innovative democracy programs to test and scale new models of civic participation, representation, and government responsiveness.