…W.E.B. Du Bois, began teaching the very first African-American history and culture class ever taught at a university, at Greenwich Village’s New School for Social Research. This history-making event appears…
Read More…African American figures, from some of the first black churches in New York to the home of author Richard Wright: Our South of Union Square Map contains an African American history tour with nearly…
Read More…Social Justice Map covering Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. This map is consistently being updated as new information rises to the surface, expanding our documentation of the African American, Women’s,…
Read More…in the Village. The house is now New York University’s Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life. The Little Half House at No. 35 West 12th Street Walking by…
Read More…Revival church first built in 1836 for the Third Universalist Society at 210 Bleecker Street. The area was then a predominantly African-American neighborhood known as “Little Africa“. Originally erected by…
Read More…in this area known as Little Africa. 159 Prince Street. A pre-law tenement built in 1873 and designed by William Jose Following the passage of Tenement House Act of 1879,…
Read More…to New Amsterdam during the 17th century were from Western and Central Africa, with their surnames suggesting the parts of Africa from which they came, such as Angola and Congo….
Read More…who owned and lived at 50 West 13th from 1858 to 1884, was one of New York’s most successful and prominent African American businessmen, a leading abolitionist, and a dedicated…
Read More…Book, The Freedom Book, and The Song Book. References to ‘the Book’ were described by Ervin’s close friend Randy Weston for his album, “African Cookbook,” in 1969: “the African Cookbook,…
Read More…was home to Irish and German immigrants and African Americans. In five days of rioting, mobs lynched at least a dozen African American men, destroyed draft offices, burned and looted…
Read More…There was a thriving community, sometimes called “Little Africa” that represented a residential and cultural haven for African and African American New Yorkers. The neighborhood also saw racial integration in…
Read More…completed in 1811. What makes this church unique for its time period was its strong abolitionist stance. The church itself abutted against the predominately free-black neighborhood of Little Africa, and…
Read More…via CityMap. At one time, when the area was known as “Little Africa,” many African-Americans were known to have lived in these buildings. One of the MCNY photos show that…
Read More…York. During Rose’s lifetime, there was also a thriving free-black community known as “Little Africa” located near the Minetta Stream (now Minetta Lane), which is on the edge of Washington…
Read MoreOctober is Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month! That’s a perfect time to take a closer look at the East Village’s own historic Little Italy, centered around First Avenue near the beloved pastry…
Read More…War II, Slavery In New York, The Black New Yorkers: 400 Years of African American History, Standing In the Need of Prayer: African American Prayer Traditions, and more. He was…
Read More…the Caribbean, and Europe. As reported in Lisa E. Farrington’s book Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists, in 1970 Burke stated: “I have known African art…
Read More…first African American authors to protest the treatment of black Americans by white Americans, and would greatly influence an entire generation of African American writers. Iconic works such as Native…
Read MoreExploring African American history in our neighborhoods, today we look at Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a woman who, in her simple quest to get to her church on East 6th Street…
Read More…known as “Little Africa“. 210 Bleecker Street, 1909. Photo from the Center for Migration Studies Collection in Village Preservation’s Historic Image Archive In 1927, in order to extend Sixth Avenue…
Read More…Studies, Caribbean Studies, and African Studies. Over the next years, Goldwater and Lowenstein would scout books from shops and other contacts throughout Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean, and sell them…
Read More…feminist, political activist, and journalist who chronicled the Russian Revolution. Selma Hortense Burke —Groundbreaking sculptor and Harlem Renaissance figure who integrated African themes and influences into her art while creating…
Read More…Louise Bryant —Noted feminist, political activist, and journalist who chronicled the Russian Revolution. Selma Hortense Burke —Groundbreaking sculptor and Harlem Renaissance figure who integrated African themes and influences into her…
Read More…of our aim is to create a record highlighting places or events which are now invisible – for example the entire neighborhood which was once called “Little Africa,” which was…
Read More…connections to gay liberation and the African-American struggle for freedom, the history behind the name is a little murkier, and a little more complicated to unravel, than one might expect. Northward…
Read More…large apartment building at 15 Charles Street. Wright’s work largely concerns the treatment of African Americans in the United States. He was one of the first African American authors to protest…
Read More…work largely concerns the treatment of African Americans in the United States. He was one of the first African American authors to protest this treatment through his writing. In an…
Read More…give the street, in what was then referred to as “Little Africa” and was the home of many ‘Black and Tan’ (mixed-race) saloons, its notorious reputation in the late 19th…
Read More…15 Charlton Street. Read her story here. Read about the variety of immigrant communities in our neighborhoods such as Little Ukraine, Little Africa, the Italians of the South Village, and the forgotten Hungarian enclave featuring…
Read More…country to a hub of “Little Spain.” 1. Second Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, 72 West 11th Street Via Wiki Commons In 1492, Spain ordered all Jews living within…
Read More…Little Spain and The Whitney Museum Our Irish Heritage Ninety-Eight Years Ago, Puerto Rican Migration to the Lower East Side Begins Europe and Greenwich Village Little India in the East…
Read More…MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens in the 1950s. Hers is a classic story of mid-century Village life — from attending Little Red Schoolhouse as a child, to supporting her husband Paul Wolff’s fight…
Read More…Rights Party hoped to use the nominations to reunite suffragists with African-American civil rights activists. Woodhull was vilified in the press for her support of free love, and she was…
Read More…African-American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism whose themes ranged from black liberation white racism. Many within the African American community compare him to James Baldwin and…
Read More…throughout Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. Expanding this interactive map resource is a collective effort, and we encourage the public to share locations where civil rights and African…
Read More…York State abolished slavery in 1827, the number of African Free Schools expanded to seven to accommodate their children. The Third African Free School was established in 1831 on MacDougal…
Read More…Anthony, Cleyn (Little) Manuel, Manuel de Garrit de Rues, Manuel Trumpeter, Widow Marycke, Gracia d’Angola, Simon Congo, Jan Francisco, Pieter San Tome, Manuel Groot (Big Manuel), Cleyn (Little) Anthony, Jan…
Read More…the political rights of African Americans. In his will, Farrell wrote: “I believe that the white people of the United States have inflicted grievous wrong on the colored people of…
Read More…the political rights of African Americans. In his will, Farrell wrote: “I believe that the white people of the United States have inflicted grievous wrong on the colored people of…
Read MoreAs most everyone knows, we’re kind of map and statistics geeks here at Off The Grid. Thus it’s no surprise that a handy little tool put together by WNYC in…
Read More…faith or genuinely converting (even some of those, however, continued to face persecution). Many more, however, fled to North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, Holland, and eventually the New World….
Read More…was an incredible day and we had this funny little car. I mean, part of what we also believed in was, you know, little cars in the city, no gas-guzzlers….
Read More…avoid the crowds and relax in a little corner of shade and greenery just around the corner, Sir Winston Churchill Square. “What does Winston Churchill have to do with Greenwich…
Read More…a two-story brick residence was built in front of the little farmhouse, effectively blocking if from view. The little house may have been out of the public’s eyes, but it…
Read More…Street farther south) from Little West 12th Street. In it you get a view of the set of buildings at and around 7 Ninth Avenue (AKA 2 Little West 12th…
Read More…1897, No. 7 was converted to a hotel, with a ground floor saloon. This four street intersection of Ninth Avenue, Greenwich Street, Little West 12th Street and Gansevoort Street is paved…
Read More…the Little Owl restaurant. L: storefront of Central Perk; R: actual storefront at 90 Bedford Street, the Little Owl L: interior of Central Perk; R: interior of the Little Owl…
Read More…of our neighborhood for a century, and continue to this day their original missions of progressive education. The City and Country School and the Little Red School House The City…
Read More…1969: Little Singer Building, 561 Broadway Designed by architect Ernest Flagg and built in 1903, this building was erected to house the Singer Sewing Machine Company’s offices and factory. A…
Read More…little bakery or a little doughnut shop. It’s all chain things.” (Andrew Raffetto p.43) The full transcription and audio for Andrew and Ramona’s interview can be read here. To learn…
Read More…true — his plan will likely reduce the existing affordable housing stock, and produce very little new affordable housing. And even if it does, the new developments, which will include…
Read More…and one-half stories in height, with a facade in Flemish bond brickwork, this little house is a fine surviving example of the Federal period of New York architecture. It retains…
Read More…for producing “race records” — recordings by and for African Americans, including some of the early greats of jazz and blues, such as Louis Armstrong. Columbia record for “Ain’t Cha…
Read More…Joplin to Anita Baker. Her songs spoke to and about working people, African Americans, liberated women, and their (and anyone else’s) everyday troubles. Her “spoken word” style is considered to…
Read More…organized the Harlem Suitcase Theater. Led by IWO vice president and Harlem resident Louise Thompson Patterson, the organization sought to bring socially conscious theater to African American audiences throughout the…
Read More…Public Theatre. They named their new gallery in honor of Joseph Cinque, a man who led a revolt against a slave ship in 1839. Cinque Gallery exhibited works by African…
Read More…police officer. They dance through the streets, and walk home down Minetta Lane, which felt like a very beautiful nod to the Village’s historic African-American neighborhood, called “Little Africa,” which…
Read More…February 2023 as we celebrate Black History Month. First, Village Preservation participants were treated to a free tour of the first hour of Lawrence’s “You Are Here: African American Walking…
Read More…cases the very poor. The impoverished “Little Africa” neighborhood was located directly west, and the “rookeries” or tenements and rooming houses of the Minettas (Street, Lane, and the no longer extant…
Read More…Africa,” what was the largest African American community in New York one hundred fifty years ago. We’ve actually built an entire children’s education program, which has taught thousands of students…
Read More…for the Abolition of Capital Punishment. From 1914 until the mid-1920s, no. 70 Fifth Avenue housed the headquarters of the oldest and largest national African-American civil rights organization, the NAACP….
Read More…black settlement in North America Via Wikimedia Shortly after the founding of New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1624, Africans were brought over to the colony. However, unlike…
Read More…to do these two tiny but incredible thoroughfares justice (and one may be forthcoming…), covering everything from their history as the center of “Little Africa” to the story of Minetta…
Read More…and World War II. Standing just over 5 ft tall, Fiorello (Italian for “little flower”) LaGuardia was every bit a fighter for progressive causes, and served the people of New…
Read More…1924 and became a celebrated writer and social critic in his lifetime, exploring complicated issues such as racial, sexual, and class tensions, as a gay African-American man. Baldwin spent some…
Read More…look back at her life and her connections to the neighborhood. Little Red Schoolhouse om Bleecker Street and Sixth Avenue. Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944, and spent…
Read More…For over 40 years, the little shop on the corner of Waverly Place and West 10th Street had remained the stalwart of independence; a bookstore that withstood the onslaught of…
Read More…and shakers, whether they be artists or activists, or anything in between. Today, on Davis’ birthday, we look back at her life and her connections to the neighborhood. Little Red…
Read More…out, only a modest increase in the rent was allowed for the new rent-stabilized tenant, thus providing little incentive to try to push out long-standing tenants, and keeping rents low….
Read MoreLittle Red School House at Sixth Avenue and Bleecker Street. Educator, psychologist, and reformer Elisabeth Irwin founded the Little Red School House, an experimental curriculum within PS 61 in the…
Read More…East Side. Kid Dropper had been fighting for years against fellow gangster Little Augie for supremacy in the lucrative labor-slugging business. Little Augie convinced Louis Cohen, a waifish and unassuming…
Read More…the process. But affordable housing advocates have a particular stake in ensuring these rezoning plans are not adopted. Why? Because these proposals would arguably do little or nothing for the…
Read More…years, but we thought we’d share a little insight with you, particularly about her true passion — painting, in many cases the same striking streetscapes she has photographed over the…
Read More…Folk Costumes and Textiles.” The Sunday News Magazine with Yaroslava’s drawing accompanying the article “The Little Nation on Second Avenue” Directory and map of Little Ukraine, sold in Yaroslava’s parents’…
Read More…rents of the stores are the same, then you don’t have a little bakery or a little doughnut shop. It’s all chain things,” said Andrew. Romana also told GVSHP: “When…
Read More…Village shop is a little further from mass transit. Our clientele on East 7th is probably a little funkier, which is about what you’d expect from the location.” What is…
Read More…Tour: Little Ukraine The traditional Ukrainian area in the East Village is lovingly called Little Ukraine, the area bounded by Houston Street to the south, 14th Street to the north,…
Read More…planned at the time, thus making Washington Square little more than the greenery surrounding a highway on-ramp. Jacobs and fellow activist Shirley Hayes would have none of it. The City tried to…
Read MoreOn August 8, 2008, Village Preservation and the East Village Community Coalition (EVCC) submitted a request to the LPC to landmark a little-known but remarkable survivor– Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at…
Read More…which borders both neighborhoods and has little landmarking, very generous zoning, and prolific housing construction, has prices comparable to SoHo and higher than Greenwich Village. So does nearby Little Italy,…
Read More…in March and get a little rowdy, punching each other over the hearts of jill hares. Thus the Irish expression, mad as a march hare; as in, you’d have to…
Read More…and 3-to-1 margin respectively. Why are measures aimed at increasing affordability and quality in new construction getting such a cold shoulder? Perhaps because they would do little or none of…
Read More…in her business, promoting works by immigrant, women, Jewish, and African American artists. In its early years, the Downtown Gallery provided a platform for folk art through its American Folk…
Read More…over 100 schools across New York City. In the summer of 2020 we decided to add a third course covering the history and contributions of African Americans in Greenwich Village….
Read More…band. The tiny stage would be filled with as many as 25 of New York’s best African American performers of the time. Harriet Browne, showcased in her later years in…
Read More…They first got together with the purpose of organizing a bus to take New York-based African-American artists to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Norman Lewis (1909-1979), Processional…
Read More…1909 as a biracial social justice organization seeking to end bias and discrimination against African Americans and ensure their equality of opportunity in the United States. Founded by Dr. Henry…
Read More…were both Republicans (the party of Lincoln) and outspoken abolitionists. In addition, Hopper Gibbons ran a school for African-American children and volunteered at a school for African-American adults. Their home…
Read More…recognized African-American opera stars. Her career broke through racial barriers at another time in our history when the United States was experiencing intense racial strife and conflict. Leontyne Price after…
Read More…Peter Larsen, a fellow Danish immigrant, and moved the family to a predominantly White German and Scandinavian neighborhood, severing Nella’s access to African American culture and religion during her youth….
Read More…Lower East Side, and SoHo, were former African slaves of the New Netherland colony who formed the first free black settlement in North America. Starting in 1643, just over two…
Read More…per year (three issues, mailing costs included.) The foreword, signed simply “The Editors,” states that “UMBRA is not another haphazard ‘little literary’ publication.” Instead, the collective believed that “there [were]…
Read More…was his steadfast support for African American civil rights and empowerment, as well as providing a progressive voice for Jews, which was so typical of the IWO. Regarding “Negro History…
Read More…and has since been updated and expanded to more than 60 entries on women’s history alone among over 200 that also cover African American, LGBTQ+, Hispanic, and Asian American histories,…
Read More…13th Street in the 1960s, during the peak of his career. Weston consistently incorporated African musical elements in his work, and played an important role in advancing the argument, now…
Read More…most of her life. With a strong focus on people of African descent, her involvement began with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and attending the former Malcolm X Liberation University….
Read More…wasn’t familiar with many Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. I had had a hit song called “African Waltz” in England and here. To be honest, there was a lot of African…
Read MoreYesterday, Off the Grid provided a sneak preview into our upcoming February programs to celebrate African-American History Month. Today we want to take a look back at our January programs….
Read More…at the time little-known architect Richard Meier. The complex became a vital artist environment containing live-work spaces, galleries, and studios for hundreds of artists, including such notables as Gil Evans,…
Read More…some of those, however, continued to face persecution). Many more, however, fled to North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, Holland, and eventually the New World. Some of these Sephardic Jews…
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