Black History in Our Neighborhood: The African Free Schools and 70 Fifth Avenue
Black history in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo is not abstract. It is tied to specific buildings, specific addresses, and specific institutions that helped shape the course of American history.
Two of the most powerful examples are the African Free School in Greenwich Village and the NAACP’s national headquarters at 70 Fifth Avenue.
African Free School No. 3
120 West 3rd Street, Greenwich Village
Founded in 1787 by the New-York Manumission Society, the African Free School system was created to educate the children of free and formerly enslaved Black New Yorkers. At a time when education for Black children was rare and often actively resisted, these schools were an extraordinary commitment to literacy and advancement.
One of these schools, African Free School No. 3, was located at 120 West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village. Its presence places early Black educational history squarely within our neighborhood.
The curriculum emphasized reading, writing, mathematics, geography, and moral philosophy. The goal was not simply basic instruction, but preparation for leadership and civic participation.
Graduates of the African Free School system included figures such as James McCune Smith and Henry Highland Garnet, both of whom became leading abolitionist voices in the 19th century.
You can read more about African Free School No. 3 and its significance in our neighborhood here:
African Free School #3, 120 West 3rd Street
This history makes clear that Greenwich Village was not only a center of artistic experimentation in the 20th century. It was also home to early efforts to expand opportunity and education for Black New Yorkers.
NAACP at 70 Fifth Avenue
Greenwich Village
From 1914 to 1923, 70 Fifth Avenue served as the national headquarters of the NAACP. Located at the southwest corner of 13th Street in Greenwich Village, the building became a central hub for civil rights advocacy in the early 20th century.
Under the leadership of W. E. B. Du Bois, the NAACP published The Crisis magazine from this address. The publication reported on racial violence, advocated for federal anti-lynching legislation, protested segregation in the federal workforce, and challenged racist cultural portrayals such as The Birth of a Nation.
No. 70 Fifth Avenue was not simply office space. It was an engine of national reform operating from within our neighborhood.
Village Preservation has documented this history extensively, including the building’s role in publishing, organizing, and shaping public debate during a critical period in American civil rights history.
To learn more about 70 Fifth Avenue and its connection to the NAACP and W. E. B. Du Bois, read our full post here: Civil Rights, the NAACP, and W.E.B. DuBois: The African American history tied to 70 Fifth Avenue
These two sites, 120 West 3rd Street and 70 Fifth Avenue, remind us that Black history is deeply embedded in the physical fabric of our neighborhoods.
Classrooms prepared young minds for leadership.
Publishing offices amplified calls for justice nationwide.
Both stand within the streets we walk today.
And both are essential to understanding the full history of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo.