…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…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…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…
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…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…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…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 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…Shakespeare performed at the African Grove Theater, would go on to be the only actor of African-American descent to be honored at the Shakespeare Memorial Theater in England. The theater…
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…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…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 MoreJames Hewlett as Richard III in a c. 1821 production. Hewlett, an actor who got his start at the African Grove Theater, was one of the most famous African-American actors…
Read More…looking at their significance to African-American history and the Civil Rights Movement. Little Africa undated photo Probably the area most associated with Black History in the Village is the former…
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…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 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…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…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…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 MoreOff 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…
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 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…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…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 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…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…
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…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…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…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 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…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 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…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…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…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 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…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 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 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…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 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…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 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…this site and over one hundred sites connected to Civil Rights and Social Justice history, LGBTQ History, African American History, and Latinx History in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and…
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…
Read More…was the founding congregation of the Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, which now has congregation across the African diaspora of North America and the Caribbean. Originally located in Lower Manhattan,…
Read More…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…
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…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…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…
Read More…found in the East Village and NoHo, starting with a theater group in the early 19th century. African Grove Theater The African Grove Theater was the first known black theater…
Read More…the 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 American…
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…organization advocating tot the civil rights of African Americans in the United States. During the first decade of the 20th Century, the rate of lynchings of African Americans, particularly men,…
Read More…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 American figures, from some…
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…time, many African Americans attempted to gain political and economic freedom via land ownership and building their own communities. Weeks sold off plots to other African Americans, both those born…
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…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 More…of Africa. Weston played an important role in advancing the argument, now widely accepted, that the roots of jazz trace back to African music. Weston’s music prominently incorporated African elements…
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…a time of enormous hope for many African Americans in New York City. On that day, Reverend William Hamilton announced at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, “[n]o more shall…
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 More…city’s African American community, who advocated for abolition and suffrage in and beyond the Village. One was the first African American to address the U.S. House of Representatives, and the…
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…East Village. Take Our African American History Tour of the Greenwich Village Historic District The Autobiography of Malcolm X was written here. The first Broadway play by an African American woman was…
Read MoreThe Shiloh Presbyterian Church is one of many African American churches once found in Greenwich Village, when nearly all the city’s leading African American churches were located in this neighborhood….
Read More…Africa’ community located in the center of Greenwich Village in the 19th century. Bennet was actively involved in African-American civil rights efforts after leaving the military following World War II,…
Read More…now lie in the crypt of the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Harlem. The current church- Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, also known as “Mother Zion”, located…
Read More…farms in Manhattan in the Stokes’ book as well as the information in Moore’s book, we were able to map out the location of each African landholder. African landholdings in…
Read More…using African spices injected with an Asian flair. Because Africa is a vast place and African food so diverse (and all the more if you include the diaspora), the menu…
Read More…blues music in the United States, with Charlie “Bird” Parker and Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter among the many other greats who called the neighborhood home. Throughout his career, Weston incorporated African…
Read More…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…from 1600-2020. Join Village Preservation as we outline the history of African presence in Lower Manhattan. February 27, 2023: Session 1 – The Geography and History of Early Manhattan 1600…
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…African-American, and resulted in approximately one-fifth of the city’s African-American population leaving (mostly for Brooklyn) To view them all, and to see other sites connected to LGBT Civil rights history,…
Read More…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 Minetta, Thompson, Cornelia and Gay Streets…
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 Village history when a robust African-American neighborhood, called “Little Africa,” was centered around Minetta Street and Lane and surrounding blocks. Garnet, deeply rooted in both her Brooklyn and Village communities,…
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…famed blues rendition of the same poem. Pearl Primus would go on to become a titan in the field of modern African American dance and introduce African dance to American…
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…worked hard to fight for himself and the African-American community, eventually becoming the first African-American to address the United States House of Representatives. He also at one time resided at…
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…these churches and synagogues are rooted in (and perhaps owe their existence to) our neighborhoods. Mother A.M.E. Zion Church The Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at 140-148 West 137th…
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…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…Labor Tour – South of Union Square Greenwich Village Historic District: Then & Now Photos and Tours African American History In Memoriam: African American Artists of Westbeth African American…
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…is an artist?” and “what is an activist?” through the lens of the experience of Africans and Black Americans in Greenwich Village, New York City, and America. Art and activism…
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