…turn of the 20th century. Fortunately, a number of scholars have documented the community that came to be known as Little Africa. James Weldon Johnson’s Black Manhattan In the Greenwich…
Read MoreLittle 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….
Read More…the name of Little Africa, the neighborhood that was centered around Minetta Lane was a key part of African American life in Manhattan up to the first decade of the…
Read More…attitudes, the integrated residential areas of Little Africa were a rare place where interracial families could settle (2016, Pgs. 16-17).” The neighborhood has changed and many remnants of Little Africa’s…
Read MoreThe Genius of Little Africa: Black Radical Thinkers, Entrepreneurs, and Abolitionists in the Village with Jamila Brathwaite African Americans living in Greenwich Village during the 19th century were an enclave…
Read More…St. Benedict the Moor opened, the South Village was known as Little Africa, and was home to New York City’s largest Black population. The community was centered around Minetta Street and…
Read MoreLittle Africa in the South Village: A lecture and slideshow with historian Joyce Gold The South Village was once home to a significant population of African-Americans, known as “Little Africa,”…
Read MoreTransitions: Little Africa and Greenwich Village, 1870-1920 In honor of Black History Month, Village Preservation celebrates the African heritage of the Village. Historian Gerald McFarland will discuss the rich history…
Read More…had been absorbed into the public school system. Playbill from the African Grove Theatre (1821); via NYPL 4. The First Known Black Theater Troup, the African Grove Theater The African Grove…
Read More…abolitionist made an impact internationally, reverberating far beyond the Greenwich Village neighborhood from which he emerged. To learn more about Little Africa, the African Free School, the African Grove Theatre,…
Read More…just on the edge of what was then known as “Little Africa,” the largest African American community in New York centered around today’s Minetta Street and Lane, and was just…
Read More…Village designation report entitled “Little Africa.” The South Village’s “Little Africa” community was the largest African-American settlement in New York throughout much of the 19th century, and lasted through the…
Read More…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…
Read More…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…
Read More…“Little Africa.” Within this dynamic community and serving the local population were churches, bars, and for a period from 1821-1823 (1826 according to some records), a theater known as the African Grove…
Read More…the first non-native settlers of the area, and in the mid-to-late 19th century its “Little Africa” community was the largest African American community in the city. But finding evidence of…
Read More…mid-19th century and known as “Little Africa.” The newly designated Sullivan-Thompson Historic District included part of “Little Africa,” and in looking at the recently published designation report for the Sullivan-Thompson…
Read More…for the South Village and the area south of Union Square, which were once home to the “Little Africa” neighborhood, once the heart of African American New York, and the…
Read More…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…
Read More…area, known for many years as “Little Africa” is located near the present-day intersection of 6th Avenue and Bleecker Street. Joyce has been researching this area and gathering historic images,…
Read More…written by Andrew Dolkart, contains extensive information about the African-American history of the South Village here and here. Read more about “Little Africa” here. Read the New York City landmark…
Read More…as the Spring Street Presbyterian Churhc; theaters such as William Brown’s African Grove Theatre, an African-American owned and operated theater that presented productions with an African-American cast; and schools such…
Read More…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…
Read More…national headquarters of the African Civilization Society and the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum. Weeksville also was home to some extraordinary African-American leaders. Susan Smith McKinney Steward was the first African-American…
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For more information on the application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission associated with this image, click here….
Posted June 2, 2020
Read More…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…
Read More…deadly 1863 Draft Riots. Our Greenwich Village Historic District Map + Tours offers an African American tour with 25 sites in the Greenwich Village Historic District connected to significant African…
Read MoreThe Little Free Library located on the Stuyvesant Oval in the Stuytown / Peter Cooper Village Complex. Photo Courtesy of Stuytown. Have you ever seen these little boxes when you’re…
Read More…slows, residents move on or assimilate deeper into American culture, and the ethnic identity of the neighborhood fades away. The Lower West Side (also called Little Syria), Little Africa, and…
Read More…as a licensed doctor; Henry Highland Garnet, a leading abolitionist and the first African American to address Congress; Ira Aldridge, the most famous African American actor of his era; Mathematician,…
Read More…C. Floyd to support African American culture. Kenkeleba began its work on The Bowery near Delancey Street with experimental projects to assist African American, Caribbean, and African artists in developing…
Read MoreThis 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…
Read More…records), a theater known as the African Grove Theater. The African Grove Theater was founded by William Alexander Brown, a free African American and pioneering actor and playwright. Through his…
Read More…community in Brooklyn at around the same time that Greenwich Village was home to Little Africa, New York’s largest African-American community. Many residents and leaders moved between the two communities,…
Read More…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…
Read More…begin on June 19th with Liberation: African Grove Theatre, an in-depth conversation on the 200-year legacy of William Alexander Brown’s African Grove Theatre, located originally on the corner of Bleecker…
Read More…America, and the “Little Africa” neighborhood located in the heart of Greenwich Village. Advocate: Village Preservation is fighting to landmark and preserve several sites connected to African American history, particularly…
Read More…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…
Read More…for African Americans in our city; the flowering of African American culture in New York and especially in Greenwich Village, and how it reflected and affected African American lives and…
Read More…courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections. The Crisis placed a special emphasis upon education, promoting the rise of African-American colleges and African American studies. Du Bois and The Crisis also had a notable…
Read More…built in 1905 and 1907, around the time many traces of Little Africa disappeared from the area. Little Africa lives on, instead, in the Abyssinian church, and other historically black…
Read MoreElisabeth 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…
Read More…of African American historic sites in our neighborhoods, to past programs about the Underground Railroad, Black Bohemia, the first black theater in America, and the “Little Africa” neighborhood located in…
Read More…where the first enslaved Africans started building the infrastructure of the city, and Wall Street, where Africans were brought and sold into enslavement, tying these locations to Greenwich Village. Lawrence…
Read More…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…
Read More…Bennett. Bennett was one of the last residents of a Greenwich Village community known as “Little Africa,” a predominantly African-American section of the neighborhood which was, for much of New…
Read More…heart of a growing African American community in what was then referred to as “Little Africa”. Before becoming home to the Bethel AME, the site was purchased for the Associated…
Read More…But from the 1700’s through the 19th century, the Village was the center of African-American life in New York, with what was referred to as “Little Africa” centered around present-day…
Read More…look at the East Village’s own historic Little Italy, centered around First Avenue near the beloved pastry shop and cafe. While not nearly as famous or intact as similar districts…
Read MoreThis 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…
Read More…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…
Read More…55 Little West 12th Street. Now home to the Brass Monkey, a popular restaurant and bar, the two little buildings sit by themselves. Looming in the background is the soaring…
Read More…and American rule, and its eventual abolition; how voting rights and other civil rights evolved and were won by and for African Americans in our city; the flowering of African…
Read MoreEnslaved 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…
Read More…African American culture in New York and especially in Greenwich Village, and how it reflected and affected African American lives and communities; and more. Did you know that the first…
Read More…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…
Read More…of “Little Africa,” 1925; photo via NYPL While far from a household name, nearly every American knows the results of Bennett’s efforts – it was he who spearheaded the successful drive…
Read More…Little Missionary’s Day Nursery since 1901 Sara Curry (c. 1863-1940) was known locally as The Little Missionary due to both her diminutive stature and her work with the impoverished families…
Read More…a center of German life known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany. For a time, it was the largest German-speaking community beyond Berlin and Vienna, and provided for residents numerous houses…
Read More…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…
Read More…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…
Read More…Smith Garnet, as well as prominent African American businessman Jacob Day, who helped lead fights against slavery and for equal voting and civil rights for African Americans. The building has…
Read MoreJune 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…
Read More…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…
Read MoreIntimate 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….
Read More…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…
Read More…gave up the ghost and sold their little piece of land to Village Cigars in 1938, merging the two plots. While the rebellious little mosaic remains, its message of individual…
Read More…landed in our neighborhood is the focus of our attention today — Ukrainians! To explore some of the Ukrainian sites in the neighborhood, we’re sharing this East Village Little Ukraine…
Read More…be followed. Registrants will be informed via email and we will post on our website. Since 1896, Little Missionary Day Nursery (affectionately known as “Little Mish”) has been a fixture…
Read More…built in 1881 by Joseph J. Little (1841-1913) of 4 Van Nest Place (today’s 57 Charles Street) in Greenwich Village. Little had an impressive and varied career, including as a…
Read More…some authentic red sauce or cannolis. But another part of the East Village’s mouth-watering culinary heritage is its own Little India– a block of 6th Street between 1st and 2nd…
Read More…also serves as an obvious reminder that a site is historically significant. For African American History month, we’re taking a look at a number of historic plaques we’ve placed throughout…
Read MoreAfrican American Movers and Shakers of the East Village: Walking Tour From playwrights and poets, to artists and musicians, African Americans made great contributions to the vibrant culture of the…
Read More…and still do — as Little Ukraine. Like many immigrant groups, the first wave of Ukrainian immigration into the United States consisted of individuals flocking to economic opportunity in the…
Read MoreOur Little Italies: Past, Present, and Future A lecture with Dr. Jerome Krase In this illustrated talk, Prof. Jerry Krase of Brooklyn College discusses the transformation of “Little Italies” throughout…
Read More…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…
Read More…the home for decades in the 19th century of one of New York’s leading African American citizens and civil-rights leaders needs the landmark protection we are calling for from New…
Read More88 East 10th Street (l.); Selma Burke. We are thrilled to share our recent research uncovering and documenting that trailblazing African American sculptor and educator Selma Hortense Burke lived, worked,…
Read More…school, served as the first chaplain of the New York African Society for Mutual Relief and a vice-president of the African Bible Society, and supported the establishment of Freedom’s Journal,…
Read More…the 19th century as Little Africa due to its sizeable African American population. Proposed in Congress on February 26, 1869, the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment was nearly a year-long…
Read More…Rights & Social Justice Map, which has more than twenty sites connected to African-American history and civil rights; click here to see them all. One such little-known but incredibly important…
Read More…the neighborhood’s past as Kleindeutschland, or “Little Germany.” On this noteworthy anniversary, we thought we’d survey and translate some of them. Ottendorfer Library & Stuyvesant Polyclinic Ottendorfer Library-German Dispensary. The…
Read MoreLittle Spain: The Spanish Community on West 14th Street A history and slideshow with Robert Sanfiz Compared to other European groups, the Village’s immigrant community from Spain is rather small…
Read MoreThe Village’s Little Secrets: Uncovering Mysteries in Brick and Mortar, Glass and Stone Fun facts and anecdotes are hidden throughout the Village, but can we ever know all of them?…
Read More…owned by a single family, the Stuyvesants. Today there only remains a single remanent of that family estate, a quirky little street with their name: Stuyvesant Street. 1868 Insurance Map…
Read More…1868 and has long operated in the transitional style row house at 239 West 14th Street. It’s one of the last vestiges of the cultural district formerly known as “Little…
Read More…19th and early 20th century. Kleine Deutschland, or “Little Germany” at one point boasted one of the largest German-speaking communities in the world and many manifestations of that era remain…
Read More…for an African-American audience and for African-American children, and what would become the American Civil Liberties Union, among many other entities. Following a campaign led by Village Preservation, the building…
Read More…especially LGBTQ people of color, could be stopped by the police or arrested for very little or nothing at all. In the 1950s and 1960s, police were especially violent when…
Read More…is one area in which there is a “they,” however, and that is for construction and art installation on city-owned land and in city-owned buildings. A little-known city agency, the…
Read More…neighborhood, particularly during the 1930s and 1940s, to escape war in Europe and fascism in Spain. Rob talked about the community that gave this area its nickname, “Little Spain,” and…
Read More…lighting and hanging signs on the canopies (on both the Little West 12th Street and the West 13th Street facades of the building). Photos of the proposal: Status as of…
Read More…All were demolished to make way for the building that we have today fronting both Broadway and Lafayette Street, and thus a little piece of London, France, and Greece disappeared…
Read MoreThe NEW New York: 19th Century Immigration – Kleindeutschland: Little Germany in New York City This talk will explore a detailed history of the development of the German American community…
Read More…noon on the Monday before the hearing. Click HERE for suggested guidelines for testimony from Village Preservation. Gansevoort Market Historic District Gansevoort St., Little West 12th St., and W. 13th…
Read More…before the hearing. Click HERE for suggested guidelines for testimony from Village Preservation. Gansevoort Market Historic District Little West 12th Street and Washington Street —- APPLICATION INFORMATION —- 1) From the CB2…
Read MoreIt was a project like no other before. The first subsidized housing for artists in the United States, offering affordable housing and work space in New York City, Westbeth is…
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