Short answers, pulled from the story.
Chester, Pennsylvania was incorporated in 1682, making it the oldest city in the state. William Penn renamed the settlement "Chester" after arriving on the ship Welcome on the 27th of October 1682, during his first visit to the Province of Pennsylvania.
Chester declared bankruptcy in 2022, becoming the 31st American city to do so since Congress made the program available in the 1930s. The city had lost most of its manufacturing base since the mid-20th century and had been designated a financially distressed municipality by Pennsylvania in 1995, with a fiscal emergency declared in 2020.
John Roach opened the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works in Chester in 1871 after purchasing the Reaney, Son and Archbold shipyard. It was the largest and most productive shipyard in the United States for its first fifteen years, built the first steel ships of the U.S. Navy, and produced more tonnage than its next two competitors combined. Roach's shipbuilding enterprise entered receivership in 1885.
Chester was a major civil rights battleground in 1963 and 1964, fighting de facto school segregation that persisted after Brown v. Board of Education. Led by George Raymond of the NAACP and Stanley Branche of CFFN, over 600 people were arrested across two months of protests. Civil rights activist James Farmer called Chester the "Birmingham of the North," and national figures including Malcolm X, Gloria Richardson, and Dick Gregory came to the city in support.
Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. opened in Chester in 1917 to build ships for the United States. During World War II it became the largest single shipyard in the world, with employment peaking at 35,000 in 1945. Employment had fallen to 4,000 by 1962, and the shipyard closed in 1990.
Chester had a population of 32,605 at the 2020 census. The city's population peaked at over 66,000 in 1950 and declined sharply as manufacturing jobs left, falling below 34,000 by 2010. As of 2020, the median age was 33.2 years and 70.6% of residents identified as Black or African American.