…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…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…very first Africans brought to New Amsterdam as enslaved people in 1626, two years after the colony’s founding. Those who arrived on that first ship, including d’Angola, were originally from…
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…as “Little Africa,” the largest African-American community in New York. By the 1920s, however, most of Little Africa’s residents had been pushed out or moved Uptown (the extension of Sixth…
Read More…ages of 18 and 39, and from a wide range of places, including Africa, the Caribbean, Illinois, Pasadena, and Queens. The first issue of Umbra magazine. After the second issue…
Read More…to civil rights movements for African-Americans, LGBTQ+ people, women, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, Jews, immigrants, and workers. This living map expands to hold them all. Civil Rights and Social Justice – Broad…
Read More…African-American neighborhood, called “Little Africa,” which was centered around the area of Minetta. Tish and Fonny make the decision to to turn their lifelong friendship into romance one evening in…
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 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…a thriving free-black community known as “Little Africa” located near the Minetta Stream (now Minetta Lane), which is on the edge of Washington Square. Though impoverished, and with poor sanitary…
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…Church sold the building to the African-American Roman Catholic Congregation of Saint Benedict the Moor, which later sold the property to Our Lady of Pompeii Church in 1898. St. Benedict…
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…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…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…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…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…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…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…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…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…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…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…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…labor, and civil rights movements to affect major improvements in how African Americans are treated in America. He was an artist who lived at Westbeth in the West Village, and…
Read More…in May 2021. 70 Fifth Avenue is just one of many sites we have identified as part of the film, civil rights, and African American history of the neighborhood South…
Read More…with Edward Augustus Brackett. She worked for most of her career in Rome, Italy, eventually becoming the first African-American and Native American sculptor to achieve national or international prominence. She began…
Read More…by 1916, OKeh Records was founded in the same building by Otto K.E. Heinemann. OKeh Records was known for producing “race records,” or recordings created by and for African Americans….
Read More…the workforce, and quickly began working to address a whole range of issues facing African-Americans at the time. The Congress was developed following a meeting held at Howard University in…
Read More…a major influence for Smith, adopting a similar sense of dynamism and fondness for rounded forms. He was also heavily inspired by African jewelry, studying photos of traditional African fashion…
Read More…re-elected again in 1985. However, his never-great relationship with the city’s African-American community took a greater slide in the late 1980s, which partially caused his 1989 primary loss. (He also…
Read MoreThe African American literary critic and professor Henry Louis Gates once stated that the Harlem Renaissance was “surely as gay as it was Black, not that it was exclusively either…
Read More…prose provides an intimate portrayal of the African American experience in the Deep South. The creation of Cane can be attributed, in part, to the brief yet intense friendship between…
Read More…From the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Mason prided herself on making every piece of jewelry differently, only agreeing to replicate a piece if she could…
Read More…in the 1950s and 1960s. Her best-known work, A Raisin in the Sun, was the first play performed on Broadway written by an African American woman. Hansberry was a New…
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…that of many idiosyncratic creations, begins with the early passions and interests of a precocious and inquisitive boy. Bill Stevens began collecting natural history specimens, minerals, and native African and…
Read More…the South Village?,” here are just a few of the things: (l. to r.) St. Anthony of Paudua Church; “Little Africa” ca. 1900; ‘Eve’s Hangout’ lesbian bar on MacDougal Street,…
Read More…the existing punk, new wave, and no wave artists who were already living and creating in Greenwich Village and the East Village. The neighborhoods served as a nexus where African-American…
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…West 3rd and running along Bleecker Street. The African-American section, or “Africa,” is situated along Cornelia, the Minettas, and Bleecker Streets. “Old Families,” “Aristocrats,” and the “Idle Rich” live along…
Read More…you get interested in that? Hiphop. When you study the African-American oral tradition and learn about the griot traditions of West Africa, you learn how many small languages are dying….
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…over a hundred sites in our neighborhood associated with civil rights and social justice, including more than twenty sites connected to African-American history and civil rights; click here to see…
Read MoreIn our new African American History curriculum for middle school students, we explore how Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art also served as a platform for advocacy, addressing some of the most pressing…
Read More…Pieter Santomee, a freed African slave who had originally worked for the Dutch West India Company, as part of the first settlement of free blacks anywhere in North America. The…
Read More…collection of histories. This neighborhood was a critical touchstone in the African American, LGBTQ, and women’s civil rights movements; it was home to the revolutionary “New York School” of artists;…
Read More…several historical books included The Rape of Africa; Revolt U.S.A., which analyzed 10 minor American riots; and Heirs Apparent: The Vice Presidents of the United States. He was 67 years old when he…
Read More…of significance to the struggle for LGBT, Women’s, African-American, Latino/a, and Asian-American civil rights in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. We have also more recently developed an “LGBTQ…
Read More…Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Hew worked tirelessly to document historical sites and artifacts related to Slavery and the African Diaspora. They collaborated with SCAD and the St….
Read More…City. But most, if by no means all, of the areas of New York City that are largely below the 10% Republican registration threshold are predominantly African-American or Hispanic —…
Read More…sculpture from the 1920s through the 1980s. The second floor is dedicated to revolving exhibits featuring sculpture and works on paper by Gross as well as modern European and African…
Read More…a way of life immersed in art. The incredible studio. On view are Gross’s sculpture and drawings, as well as objects from his extensive collection of African and modern American…
Read More…traditions were born (where would we be without the German Christmas tree, African-Americans’ jazz, or that Eastern European Jewish staple, the bagel?!). I’m proud to be a New Yorker and…
Read More…and early 20th century, when the Village was the center of New York’s African-American community, many of the residents of Gay Street were black, and many were musicians (read more…
Read More…West 13th Street, a site of significance in both theatrical and African American history, from potential demolition. Oppose air rights transfers and other measures to allow oversized commercial developments in…
Read More…organized into five categories—African-American history, LGBT history, women’s history, social justice and political activism, and Hispanic history. Some sites are even members of several categories, like the Lorraine Hansberry Residence,…
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 More…the African American Roman Catholic congregation of Saint Benedict the Moor in 1883. There had been a significant African-American population in the area around Minetta Street, but as the century…
Read More…New York City deserves to be protected because of its connection to LGBT history, the way it has for underground railroad sites, the African Burial Ground, the Apollo Theater, or…
Read More…Bleecker Street. This church was originally built in 1836 for the Unitarian Universalists, but was sold to the African American Roman Catholic congregation of Saint Benedict the Moor in 1883….
Read More…in American history, and one of the most important milestones in the journey to legal and political freedom and equality for African-Americans. The Village and East Village played an outsized…
Read More…production, Come Back, Africa, filmed on location in Africa, and dealing with the struggles against Apartheid. His collaboration with the Film-Makers’ Cooperative led to that group’s midnight screenings of experimental…
Read More…a wide swath of the planet, covering North and West Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. They bring different cultural experiences and different languages but share their faith. The…
Read More…365th Regiment at a parade back in New York New York’s 369th Infantry Regiment was the first African American and Puerto Rican regiment to serve in World War I, spending…
Read More…numerous progressive organizations were founded and blossomed: the first organization to insure contraception, the first African American magazine, and a chapter of the oldest women’s peace organization — the latter…
Read More…charge. (Note plaque is on the Crosby Street Side.) Photos of dedication event here: http://bit.ly/blackwellphotos and video here: http://bit.ly/blackwelldedication Elizabeth Blackwell Plaque at 58 Crosby Street Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Hansberry The first African…
Read More…themes we explore is how voting rights and other civil rights evolved and were won by and for African Americans in our city and elsewhere in the state and country….
Read More…to form the Manumission Society of New York, which in turn founded the African Free School in 1787. The Manumission Society’s work included protesting the widespread practice of kidnapping black…
Read More…its height the consortium included 188,000 members from many political, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. In the 1930s and 1940s, African American members of the IWO instituted the Lincoln-Douglass Society, one…
Read More…other Spanish-speaking members of the IWO developed the organization’s Cervantes Fraternal Society, and African American members of the IWO instituted the Lincoln-Douglass Society. The Lincoln-Douglass Society, notably, offered high quality…
Read More…sold the building to the fledgling African-American Roman Catholic congregation of Saint Benedict the Moor. The Church of St. Benedict was named for a 16th-century African-born friar. The church was…
Read MoreHarlem Renaissance painter Beauford Delaney was known for his colorful modernist compositions and unique approach to figuration. One of the most important African-American artists of the early 20th century, he…
Read MorePage from LPC’s List of 25 African-American Sites. Courtesy of LPC website. In honor of Black History Month, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has released a list of 25 designated…
Read More…West 10th Street to the “Transformative Women” tour, Paulo d’Angola and Anthony Portuguese at Washington Square Park to the “African American History” tour, and the entirety of the brand new…
Read More…challenging President Kennedy and his brother to take bolder stances on civil rights, supporting African anti-colonial leaders, and confronting the romantic racism of the Beat poets and Village hipsters. 337…
Read More…the African-American and LGBTQ civil rights movements took place; where the “New York School” of artists shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York; and where…
Read More…Civil Rights Congress, an organization that campaigned internationally to defend African Americans convicted of crimes, especially in cases involving the death penalty, and of course, her “questionable choice of material.”…
Read More…even higher percentage white than the 7 census tracts, with Hispanics and Asians at a further decreased percentage of the population than currently. And while the share of African-American residents…
Read More…Village and Back: Gould Library & Begrisch Hall Ariel Kates: African American, Feminist, & LGBTQ Solidarity at the Women’s House of Detention Sam Moskowitz: Remembering the 344th Lost Firefighter, and…
Read More…Abingdon Square, from the New School to the New York Studio School. Historic houses of worship and historic houses, key sites of immigrant, LGBTQ, African-American history and so much more…
Read More…place for artists, writers, musicians; as key site in LGBTQ, African American, and Jewish history; and so much more. We also included a tour celebrating the many preservation leaders who…
Read More…explored and celebrated Cather’s life and the unique community and sense of place that shaped it. Watch here! Plaque Dedication: Lorraine Hansberry — The first African American woman to write…
Read More…of elevating, preserving, and celebrating the histories and contributions of underrepresented groups in our neighborhoods including African Americans, LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, the Latinx community, and Asian-Americans. Learn more about…
Read More…in its early campaigns against lynching, employment discrimination, voting disenfranchisement, and defamatory representations in the media, including the film Birth of A Nation. It also housed W.E.B. DuBois’ The Crisis magazine, the first African…
Read More…said he was influenced by African-American poets he heard on the New York streets, especially Big Brown. 77. On May 29, 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Dylan a Presidential Medal of…
Read More…of the local population which was a kaleidoscope of ethnicities and races including Puerto Rican, African American, Slavic, and Italian. Tensions between the groups and the hippies were high and…
Read More…is Ted Joans, who resided at 108 St. Marks Place from 1956 throughout the 1960s. He later left to spend time in Europe and Africa, and was a close friend…
Read More…in the media, including the film Birth of A Nation. The building also housed W.E.B. DuBois’ The Crisis magazine, the first African American magazine and voice of the civil rights movement for over a…
Read More…reached the ground, current presiding minister Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis rang the bell 19 times — commemorating both Juneteenth and the first enslaved Africans brought to this nation in 1619….
Read More…African-American talent and the first racially integrated nightclub in the U.S.), and Jane Jacobs, a journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics, and whose book…
Read More…queer enclave around Christopher Street. Rivera was active in the Black Liberation Movement, and, in 1963, met Marsha P. Johnson, a self-identified African American drag queen and activist for gay rights….
Read MoreWe have spent a good deal of time highlighting the cultural history of the area South of Union Square, including its critical role in the African American, LGBTQ+, and women’s…
Read More…of Our Elizabeth Blackwell Historic Plaque Unveiling See Photos of Our Elizabeth Blackwell Historic Plaque Unveiling Listen To Our Podcast About the Blackwell Sisters and African American Dr. Rebecca Cole…
Read More…nudged Hispanic New Yorkers past African-Americans as the city’s second-largest racial or ethnic group in the city. I owe my own debt of gratitude to these communities as someone of…
Read More…African-American and LGBTQ theater. The 13th Street Repertory Theatre, located here since 1972, helped launch the careers of Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Dreyfus, Christopher Meloni, and many…
Read More…German temperance to Jewish organized crime, and African-American jazz to Manchester electronica? For more information on the building’s history, read here >> A version of this article originally appeared in 6sqft….
Read More…and Social Justice Map connected to Asian American history. To explore even more Civil Rights and Social Justice locations in our neighborhoods, including those connected to African American, women’s, LGBTQ,…
Read More