African free school - Village Preservation

blog

African Free School, First in America for Black Students, Found a Home in Greenwich Village

…Rights and Social Justice Map. Want to learn about more civil rights and social justice sites in our neighborhoods? Check out our map. Sources: https://www.nyhistory.org/web/africanfreeschool/history/ https://www.nyhistory.org/web/africanfreeschool/history/philosophy.html http://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15052coll5/id/31512 http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/african-free-school-opens-new-york-city https://www.jstor.org/stable/274931?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents http://maap.columbia.edu/place/9…

blog

African Free School #3, 120 West 3rd Street

…the African Free School L-R: Henry Highland Garnett, Ira Aldridge, Charles Lewis Reason, and Alexander Crummell Click here to read more about the African Free School and sites tied to…

blog

15 Sites of Critical African American History in Greenwich Village

…first school for Blacks in America, the African Free School African Free School No. 3 was located at 120 West 3rd Street (formerly 120 Amity Street). This was one of…

blog

14 historic sites of the abolitionist movement in Greenwich Village

…Public Library. African Free School, No. 2, New York. 11. African Free School No. 3, 120 West 3rd Street This was one of seven schools dedicated to the education of the…

Campaign Update

Back to School with Village Preservation: Continuing Education, Children’s Education, and Neighborhood School Histories

…world of schools designed by master school architect C.B.J. Snyder; explore them all. Learn about the African Free Schools located in our neighborhoods; pioneering progressive educational institution Little Red School…

blog

Renowned Actor Ira Frederick Aldridge Gets His Start at the African Grove Theatre

…School starting around the age of thirteen for about two years. The first school for Black students in America, the African Free School was founded over three decades before —…

blog

How Greenwich Village and the East Village Launched the 19th Century Hebrew Free School Movement

…membership and schools for their children. And so, the Hebrew Free School Association was formed. The Hebrew Free School Association’s Formation and Mandate Many of the earliest synagogues in New…

blog

2014 Year In Review: GVSHP Programs

…and Presentation of the Village Awards Co-sponsored by The New School Monday, June 16 6:30 – 8:00 P.M. Free; reservations required The Auditorium at The New School 66 West 12th…

blog

Beyond the Village and Back: Bowne House in Flushing, Queens — Birthplace of Religious Freedom in America

…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…

Campaign Update

November 2023 Programs: Jane Jacobs, the Former “Colored” School No. 4, and More

…landmark last May — ripples below West 14th Street, where “Colored” Schools were also located. The schoolhouse was built in 1849-50, then in 1860 was relegated to African American students…

blog

A Complete Guide to the Charles B.J. Snyder Schools in Our Neighborhoods

…and he is credited with designing over 400 public schools throughout our metropolis, representing one of the largest expansions of public education in American history. His revolutionary approach to school…

blog

Civil Rights, the NAACP, and W.E.B. DuBois: The African American history tied to 70 Fifth Avenue

…African-American colleges and African American studies (DuBois himself would teach the very first course in African American history just feet from here at The New School in 1948). DuBois reported…

blog

Great NYC Museums Go #BeyondTheVillageAndBack

…African Free School #2 on Mulberry Street and the Phoenix High School of Colored Youth. Garnet began his career as a pastor, leading the congregation of the Liberty Street Presbyterian…

blog

Beyond the Village and Back: Historic Weeksville, Brooklyn

…550 African-Americans. It had its own churches, including Bethel Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Berean Missionary Baptist Church. Its school, Colored School No. 2, was the first school…

blog

Beyond the Village and Back: The Children’s Aid Society’s Fourteenth Ward Industrial School on Mott Street

…lot behind the building. Fourteenth Ward Industrial School, 1895. Photo Courtesy of Children’s Aid Society Annual Report. The Fourteenth Ward Industrial School served as an industrial and night school until…

event

Former “Colored” School No. 4: A Newly-Designated City Landmark

…century-old racial-caste public school system, born of the late 18th-century African Free School. The rare surviving site offers a telling window into the complex trajectory of the Black experience in…

blog

Black History Month 2018 – Learn and Celebrate with Us!

…as The African Free School, the first school for African Americans in the country, founded on November 2, 1787 by the New-York Manumission Society and founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and…

event

You Are Here –
Lecture on the Geographical History of Enslaved and Free Africans in Manhattan 1613 – 1865
Celebrating Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month You Are Here – Lecture on the Geographical History of Enslaved and Free Africans in Manhattan 1613 – 1865 Join author, tour guide, and native New…

event

Celebrating Black History Month You Are Here – A Walking Tour of the Geographical History of Enslaved and Free Africans in Manhattan 1613 – 1865

…Free Africans in Manhattan: 1613 – 1865. With a focus on Greenwich Village, this fact-filled educational tour will cover key sites in African American history in old New York. Please…

blog

Community Cornerstone: Little Red School House-Elisabeth Irwin High School

Elisabeth Irwin founded Little Red School House in 1921. Image via LREI. In 2012, GVSHP spotlighted the work of Little Red School House/Elisabeth Irwin High School on Off the Grid…

event

What is New is Old: A History of The New School A lecture and slideshow with Julia Foulkes, Associate Professor of History, The New School

What is New is Old: A History of The New School A lecture and slideshow with Julia Foulkes, Associate Professor of History, The New School In 1919, the New School…

event

Enslaved and Free Africans in Lower Manhattan, 1613-1741

Enslaved and Free Africans in Lower Manhattan, 1613-1741 with Sylviane A. Diouf This talk will explore the early slave trade, Africans’ ownership of land during Dutch rule, slave revolts, and…

blog

Pioneers Converge on MacDougal Street: Dr. Robert Hogan, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, and Sarah Smith Garnet

…system, for which she worked for 37 years. When she began teaching in 1854, the public schools were racially segregated, including her school, the African Free School of Williamsburg. Today, the Sarah…

blog

Former Schools of Greenwich Village and the East Village

…many schools in our neighborhoods have come and gone over the decades, while others have stuck around. While all these schools served the function of educating young people, many also…

blog

No Need for a Mock UN at One East Village Elementary School

…neighborhoods, were the site of a number of urban renewal projects that rearranged the density and placed additional strain on already overcrowded schools. Plus the school serving the area, PS…

blog

The Biggest Mural in NYC, On View, For Now, at City-As-School

…swept the country during the 70s and 80s, popularizing the Deweyan school-without-borders model. From the start, City-As-School operated as a “transfer school,” a school designed to re-engage students who have…

blog

Charles Snyder’s Historic Schools in the East Village

The distinctive H plan of many NYC schools that Snyder designed, here the former P.S. 64/CHARAS building. Each year, New York City’s 1 million public school students return to school…

blog

North America’s First Freed Black Settlement Right in our Neighborhood

…New Amsterdam. Each number corresponds to a freed African landholder and is described in the GVSHP Civil Rights and Social Justice map. Each number corresponds to a freed African landholder…

blog

Back To School

…time when “the Board of Education had 271 schools under its jurisdiction, including 95 grammar schools, 101 primary schools, 14 ‘colored’ schools, 29 evening schools for working children, 3 normal…

blog

Little Free Libraries of Our Neighborhoods and Beyond

…garden near 487 Hudson Street) Hudson Square Little Free Library (Located in Freeman Plaza West) Corlears Hook Park Little Free Library (Located in the park near 479 Cherry Street) Seward…

Image

Village Community School at 272 West 10th Street, former P.S. 107 and St. Veronica’s Parochial School

Posted April 8, 2024

press

Push to name Morton school for Jane Jacobs, get after-school funds

Apr 6, 2017

Read Article Read More

blog

North America’s First Free Black Settlement In Our Neighborhoods

…people of African descent was seized by wealthy white landowners who turned these former free black settlements into retreats, farms, and plantations. The landowners in this first settlement of free…

blog

A Vibrant Tapestry: African American History in Our Neighborhoods

…in civil rights history. This includes more than four dozen connected to African American civil rights, from the first free Black settlement in North America to the sites of the…

blog

The African Grove Theater — Black Theater’s Beginnings in Our Neighborhood

…of free and enslaved Black people. Many free Black people lived along the no longer extant Minetta Creek, in an area that came to be known as “Little Africa.” This…

blog

W.E.B. Du Bois Makes – and Teaches – History at the New School, September 27, 1948

…with hundreds of other important moments and places in history located in our neighborhoods. Du Bois taught at the New School for the 1948-1949 school year, teaching the first African-American…

blog

Beyond the Village and Back: The Aguilar Free Circulating Library

…of international financier and trustee of the Society Jacob Schiff, the Society had purchased the East Broadway and East Fifth Street buildings from the Hebrew Free School (read more about…

blog

Village Preservation Resources for African American History Month

…in the history of the United States. After the riots, approximately one-fifth of New York’s African American population left the city. Explore this and other key moments of African American…

blog

Black History Month in the Village: African-American & LGBT Historic Sites

…predominantly African American in the 19th century and known to be home to many African American musicians. It is a coincidence that Gay Street is located just one block from…

blog

The African Grove Theater

…Theater. The African Grove Theater was founded by William Alexander Brown, a free African American and pioneering actor and playwright. Through his work as a ship’s steward, he traveled extensively…

page

African American History, Greenwich Village and Beyond

Village Preservation’s five-part course on African American history for middle school and high school students focuses on local, citywide, national, and global themes and movements. It looks at the Dutch…

blog

Underground Railroad Church Once Located in Greenwich Village Led Abolitionist Cause

…was granted permission to attend a funeral and used the opportunity to escape to Delaware, and then to New York City. Garnet, who attended the African Free School and the…

blog

Beyond the Village and Back: The Juilliard School

…East Village, and NoHo, celebrate their special histories, and reveal their (sometimes hidden) connections to our neighborhoods. The Juilliard School is one of the world’s most respected schools for the…

blog

Third Street Music School’s Long Journey to 11th Street

…another settlement house located nearby. The College and University Settlements then combined music schools to form the Music School of the University and College Settlements. This new school was located…

blog

Celebrate African American History Month and the Elizabeth Blackwell Bicentennial and Join Us in Fighting to Protect This Critical History

This February is African American History Month, a time to highlight and celebrate the rich history of African American struggle, success, and life in our neighborhoods over the last four…

blog

East Village Building Blocks Tour: African American History

People of African descent have lived in the area now known as the East Village since the mid-17th century, when semi-freed African slaves of the Dutch West India Company in…

blog

In Memoriam: African American Artists of Westbeth

…African Americans in general and African-American actors in particular. In the late 1950s he co-organized with Godfrey Cambridge and Maya Angelou fundraisers for Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Village…

blog

Sarah Smith Garnet: Suffragist, Principal, Villager

…for 37 years. When she began teaching in 1854, the public schools were racially segregated, including her school, the African Free School of Williamsburg. She was the first African-American woman…

blog

Anthony Congo, Freed Slave and Early Lower Manhattan Landowner

…years of the founding of New Amsterdam and their being brought to the colony as slaves. In some cases, these free black settlers were among the very first Africans brought…

blog

The Freedman’s Bank in the South Village

…The Freedmen’s Bank, was created by the United States Congress to aid freedmen in their transition from slavery to freedom. During the bank’s existence, 37 branches were opened in 17…

blog

C.B.J. Snyder and the East Village

…to 1922, Snyder designed close to three hundred fifty schools and school additions, nearly all of which were considered landmarks of educational design. Unfortunately, not all of the master’s school…

blog

Anarchy in the East Village! The Ferrer Modern School

The Modern School, c. 1911-1912, from the Friends of the Modern School website. The East Village was the first home of the Ferrer Modern School of New York City. First…

event

Celebrating the Bicentennial of the African Grove Theater

…Black Theatre Network is joining as a partner for this event. The African Grove Theatre was founded by William Alexander Brown, a free African American and pioneering actor and playwright,…

blog

The Landmarked New School Auditorium — Home of Village Preservation’s 2019 Annual Meeting and Village Awards

…adjoining lot. The New School for Social Research Auditorium. Image via LPC designation report, Carl Forster The New School desired a building whose architecture would reflect the institution’s progressive philosophies….

blog

The Largest School in the World

…The school still exists as P.S. 188, and is now known as The Island School. The building is also home to Girls Prep Lower East Side Elementary Charter School. P.S….

blog

Marking African-American History Month in the Village

…February is African-American History Month, now seems like an especially appropriate time to highlight the African-American history of the South Village, the subject of a separate chapter in the South…

blog

New Evidence of 19th Century African American Life in Our Neighborhoods

…looking for information about it, I came across this in the 1859-60 directory: Greenwich Village has a long history as a home to African Americans, as free blacks were actually…

Campaign Update

Black Lives, Black Histories

…neighborhood of significance to African American history – explore here. Lectures, Tours, Talks on African American History We have video and images of scores of past programs about the African…

event

Radical Social Movements in the Village and the Battle for Free Speech

…co-author of many books on constitutional law, including Social Media, Freedom of Speech and The Future of Our Democracy (2022) and Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime (2004), which won…

blog

Learn About Radical Social Movements in the Village and the Battle for Free Speech

…of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Susan Herman is the inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Like Ginsburg, she served as General Counsel to the American…

blog

African American History in the East Village

…to some remarkably consequential events, places, and figures in African-American history. To help explore just some of them, we have created a new African American History Guided Tour on our…

blog

New African-American History Curriculum for Children’s Education Program

Just in time for the upcoming Black History Month, Village Preservation has developed a new, four-part course on African American history for middle school students as part of our Children’s Education…

Campaign Update

New African-American History Curriculum for Children’s Education Program

Just in time for the upcoming Black History Month, Village Preservation has developed a new, four-part course on African American history for middle school students as part of our Children’s…

blog

Henry Highland Garnet and the Village

…185 Bleecker Street. African Free School. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Garnet was born in Maryland, but in 1824, his family (consisting of 11 members) was given permission to attend…

event

Walking Tour: Education and Radical Free Thought

Education and Radical Free Thought Walking Tour From the first free circulating library in New York City to “The People’s Institute,” Greenwich Village is home to some of the earliest…

blog

New Historic Images- Astor Place, 10th Street, Village Community School, and more.

…constructed in 1885-86 as Primary School No. 7 and redesignated as Public School 107 in 1897. Following demographic changes, the school was closed in June 1930 and was acquired by the New…

blog

It’s Back to School at GVSHP’s Lecture Tonight!

Feeling the end-of-summer/back-to-school blues? Get back in the academic spirit this evening with our free lecture- C. B. J. Snyder’s School Design in the Village. PS 3 on Hudson Street…

Campaign Update

Celebrate African American History Month and the Elizabeth Blackwell Bicentennial and Join Us in Fighting to Protect This Critical History

This February is African American History Month, a time to highlight and celebrate the rich history of African American struggle, success, and life in our neighborhoods over the last four…

Campaign Update

More Exciting October Programs Highlight Martha Graham, Free Speech Movements, and Macabre Greenwich Village

…info and registration here. Radical Social Movements in the Village and the Battle for Free Speech Tuesday, October 25, 6 pm ET A Zoom Webinar Free Pre-registration is required Our…

event

C. B. J. Snyder’s School Design in the VillageA Lecture by Jean Arrington

C. B. J. Snyder’s School Design in the Village A Lecture by Jean Arrington Urban public schools are some of the most architecturally intriguing buildings in the dense city landscape….

blog

A Tale of Four Schools — Program Thursday

…and one of his famous “H”-plan schools. Architect CBJ Snyder was a prolific designer of New York public school buildings, completing more than 350 schools in the late 19th…

blog

The New School vs. NYU — A Telling Comparison

…review. The New School‘s University Center under construction at 5th Avenue and 14th Street (image courtesy of Curbed.com) The comparison is quite telling… First, The New School’s (TNS) University Center…

blog

February: GVSHP celebrates African-American History Month

…Off the Grid blog posts: Spring Street Presbyterian Church (an early abolitionist congregation) Marking African-American History Month in the Village African Americans in the South Village Civil War Draft Riots…

blog

Little Africa: Tracing African Americans in the South Village

…from the organizations, institutions, and stores that still exist today. But it is much harder to trace the African-American community that called the Village home from the 1860s through the…

blog

African American history in the Sullivan Thompson Historic District

Off the Grid has previously taken a look at African American history in the South Village, which was home to almost a quarter of the city’s African-American population during the…

blog

African-American Music Crosses Genres #SouthOfUnionSquare

June is named African-American Music Appreciation Month. But insofar as it is hard to conceive of genres of American music that have not been fundamentally shaped or originated by Black…

event

Celebrating Freedom: A Lecture by Sherrill D. Wilson

Celebrating Freedom: A Lecture by Sherrill D. Wilson July 4, 1827 was the legal and official beginning of the emancipation of African enslaved people in New York City, although some…

blog

Grace Church Choir Celebrates its 125th Anniversary with a Free Concert

Did someone say FREE CONCERT? Yes, indeed we did! Celebrating the 125th anniversary of its historic choir, Grace Church is offering a free concert featuring current choir members and alumni,…

Campaign Update

New Oral History: Shirley Wright and the Founding of the West Village Nursery School

…School co-founder Shirley Wright — access it here. Shirley has lived in Greenwich Village for three quarters of a century, and co-founded the West Village Nursery School: a model, progressive…

event

C. B. J. Snyder’s School Design in the Village: A special encore presentation

C. B. J. Snyder’s School Design in the Village A special encore presentation Urban public schools are some of the most architecturally intriguing buildings one can find in the dense…

blog

A Tradition of Progressive Education

…and Country School and The Little Red School House-Elisabeth Irwin High School were founded in the early 20th century and as part of the progressive education movement. The City and…

blog

Romare Bearden and the Formation of An African American Artistic Identity Downtown

…search of a better life as so many other southern African Americans did during the first wave of the Great Migration, and it’s with Harlem that Bearden is most closely…

blog

GVSHP African American History Month Series: Revisiting Spring Street Presbyterian Church

…this month with specific focus on the history of the African-American community in Greenwich Village. On Monday, February 9, archivist David Pultz will give an illustrated lecture at the First…

event

Little Africa Rediscovered: African Descendants in the South Village During the 19th Century

Little Africa Rediscovered: African Descendants in the South Village During the 19th Century Since the 17th century, people of African descent have been laying roots in and around Greenwich Village….

Campaign Update

New Video Tours of African American History and Landmarks in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo

…headquarters of the NAACP and the site of its first meeting; the African American musicians of Gay Street in the 19th century and the East Village in the 20th; African…

event

Intimate Portraits: African Americans in the Antebellum South VillageA lecture with Gunja SenGupta

Intimate Portraits: African Americans in the Antebellum South Village A lecture with Gunja SenGupta Celebrate African-American History Month with Village Preservation as we explore the Village’s often forgotten African-American heritage….

event

Tale of Four Schools

Tale of Four Schools Architect CBJ Snyder was a prolific designer of New York public school buildings, completing more than 350 schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries….

event

The New York Studio School: A Tour of the Arts

…1964, the New York Studio School has been an innovator in arts education, prioritizing daily continuity of study for artists through work in the studio. In 1965, the school moved…

event

New York Studio School – A Tour of the Arts

…Greenshields Foundation Grant and the Hohenberg Travel Grant. Bee is an alum of the New York Studio School’s MFA program and has also studied at Mount Gretna School of Art….

blog

Dr. Rebecca Cole, African-American Female Medical Pioneer Who Changed Lives On Bleecker Street

…Illustrated Newspaper.” Source: Library of Congress In 1867, Rebecca J. Cole became only the second African American woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. (Another Rebecca, Rebecca…

blog

Villager and Groundbreaking African American Soprano Leontyne Price

…the former home of Leontyne Price Ms. Price was one of the first internationally recognized African-American opera stars. Her career broke through racial barriers at a time when the United…

blog

127, 129, and 131 MacDougal Street: Architecture, Artists, African Americans, and “Alternative Lifestyles”

…as by the mid-to-late 19th century, Greenwich Village was home to the “Little Africa” neighborhood, the largest African American community in New York and the center of African American life in…

blog

Highlighting Landmarking Effort for 50 West 13th Street’s African American Voting Rights Crusader

…African American citizens, and a crusader for abolition, equality, and voting rights for African Americans. Mayor de Blasio refused to support landmark designation of the site. With the building having…

blog

An Intersectional Black History Month Roundup

…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…

blog

From Parking Lot to Car Free Washington Square Park

…Council and supported by local Council Members Corey Johnson, Rosie Mendez and Margaret Chin, also make today Car Free NYC day. Map from Washington Square Park Blog Three areas around the city were selected for…

Campaign Update

Former Colored School No. 4 at 128 West 17th Street Up for Landmark Consideration

We’re pleased to report that last Tuesday the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) calendared, or began the process to consider for landmark designation, the former Colored School No. 4 at 128…

Campaign Update

Colored School No. 4 at 128 West 17th Street Gets Landmark Hearing Next Tuesday

…learning facilities, which were deeply invested in advancing African American education and opportunity. After deciding this past February to finally consider Colored School No. 4 for landmark designation, the NYC…

blog

The Children’s Aid Society’s Deep Roots in Greenwich Village and the East Village

…York; German immigrants escaping unemployment and religious and political oppression following the failed 1848 revolutions came streaming in; and recently freed African Americans (most northern states had abolished slavery by…

Campaign Update

Back to School with Village Preservation’s Children’s Education Program

…over three decades, and last school year had our highest demand EVER, serving nearly 3,000 students from all five boroughs. The program is available to all schools and classes regardless…

blog

Back to School! GVSHP’s Children’s Education Program

…school teacher, or a parent of an elementary school child, and you are interested in GVSHP’s Children’s Education program, please let us know. You can call 212-475-9585 x 34, or…

Search Results for African free school