…Native American Lenape presence in New York City, we will explore the lives and impact of the first nonnative visitors, residents, and businesses in Lower Manhattan. African American communities in…
Read MoreAfrican Landholdings in New Amsterdam According to historian Christopher Moore, the first legally emancipated community of people of African descent in North America was found in Lower Manhattan, comprising much…
Read More…known as “Little Africa” — a predominantly African-American section of Greenwich Village centered around Minetta Street and Lane, Gay Street, and Thompson Street — still existed but was rapidly disappearing…
Read More…Preservation as we outline the history of African presence in Lower Manhattan. The program begins with a conversation about the lives and experiences of people of African descent who were…
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…the opportunity to escape to Delaware, and then to New York City. Garnet, who attended the African Free School and the Phoenix High School of Colored Youth, began his career…
Read More…Gay Street, long known for its African American residents, and “Little Africa,” which was centered around nearby Minetta Street and Minetta Lane. Like many African-Americans living in the Village at…
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…struggle, but illustrates the same race-based violence African Americans faced across the centuries. In July 1863, angry white working-class New Yorkers began a protest against the new federal draft that…
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 MoreFreedman’s Bank in Little Africa as shown in the GVSHP Civil Rights and Social Justice Map. On March 3, 1865, The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, commonly referred to as…
Read More…has uncovered hidden histories of the African Diaspora, including Greenwich Village’s “Little Africa,” which flourished during the 19th century. John Reddick is an architectural historian and Columbia University Community Scholar…
Read More…first black Catholic church in the North, located in what was then the heart of New York’s African American community, Greenwich Village’s ‘Little Africa.’ This African American parish’s taking over…
Read More…African American Guided Tour of the neighborhood mentioned in this episode here: bit.ly/AfricanAmericanTour Take our Content Quiz! Abstract Expressionism and Greenwich Village The Rise of Abstract Expressionism, focusing on two…
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…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…in Greenwich Village connected to the African American leaders and institutions located here in the 19th century when this neighborhood was the center of African American life in New York…
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…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…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…to America annually after 1924. This playbill from the African Grove Theatre on Bleecker and Mercer Streets is a reminder that immigrants and migrants brought a wealth of culture to…
Read More…extraordinary significance to the African American and LGBTQ civil rights movement, as well as the Women’s Suffrage and women’s rights movements. This includes the historic former headquarters of the nation’s oldest…
Read More…of African presence in Lower Manhattan. The program begins with a conversation about the lives and experiences of people of African descent who were trafficked to New York City through…
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…We’ll reflect on questions like “what is an artist?” and “what is an activist?” through the lens of the experience of Africans and Black Americans in Greenwich Village, New York…
Read More…Town) in Lower Manhattan in the early 1820s; the migration of free blacks to the West Village (Little Africa) in the mid-1800s; and the establishment of African American social and…
Read More…City from 1600-2020. Join Village Preservation as we outline the history of African presence in Lower Manhattan. The program begins with a conversation about the lives and experiences of people…
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…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…laboratory and cross-section of tenement types which served as the homes for much of NYC’s African American community in the 19th century as well as many of the city’s immigrants before…
Read More…past Off the Grid posts: A Civil Rights Activist and the Café Society The 1863 Draft Riots and Abigail Hopper Gibbons Little Africa: Tracing African Americans in the South Village…
Read More…was once home to “Little Africa,” New York’s largest African-American community), to its Italian-American immigrant history, to its artistic and bohemian history. But this designation report also broke new ground…
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…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…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…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…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…1884, it was home to Jacob Day, one of New York’s most wealthy and successful 19th century African American businessmen and real estate owners, crusader for African American civil rights, and…
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…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…II: Our African-American Village presented by St. John’s in the Village Church In the 1640s freed African slaves settled what is now Greenwich Village. Since then the Village has occupied an…
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…residents, and businesses in Lower Manhattan. African American communities in Greenwich Village, such as Little Africa, will be covered as well as the leaders of this community. You’ll learn about…
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…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…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…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…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…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…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…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…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…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…New York City. These sites — key to the stories of African Americans, Hispanics, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and disabled New Yorkers — share two things in common. Several are imminently…
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…congregation moved in 1903, it had grown to become a wealthy and sizable congregation, and a significant actor in New York’s African American religious and cultural life. While in Greenwich…
Read More…that the LPC has finally chosen to move ahead on this proposal, they have consistently dragged their feet on protecting endangered sites connected to African American history in our neighborhoods….
Read More…of African American history in our neighborhoods over the last 200 years, from battles for abolition, civil rights, and voting rights, to vibrant cultural, literary, artistic, and musical movements. Much…
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…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…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…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…for an African American audience which showcased some of the great writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, and which has been called “the most widely read and influential periodical…
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…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…communities and histories. For many years our work has focused on documenting, celebrating, and protecting underrepresented communities and histories, and especially sites connected to civil rights for African Americans, LGBTQ…
Read MoreCelebrating 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…
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…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…for slavery’s abolition, and to recognize African American history, culture, and struggle. Our neighborhoods were home to a remarkable array of people and institutions that played a prominent role in…
Read More…creative intervention that elevates the impact of the African Diaspora. They establish space to revisit untold and suppressed stories through a practice that invites people to walk, talk, and reimagine…
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…model. We have three curricula: Greenwich Village, Past and Present; Immigration in the South Village; and African-American History, Greenwich Village and Beyond. With the city’s first historic preservation children’s education…
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…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…
Read More…and secured landmark designation for sites connected to LGBTQ+, African American, women’s, immigrant, Latinx, and social justice history. Village Preservation helped secure National Register of Historic Places listing and NYC…
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…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…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…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…Day, one of the city’s leading African American businesspeople and a prominent advocate for abolition, voting rights for African Americans, and civil rights. Day was a prominent member of the…
Read More…seek landmark designation for this historic, endangered area, which has played such a crucial role in not only Jewish but African American, LGBTQ+, women’s, labor, literary and artistic history Andrew…
Read MoreClockwise from top left: Christopher Street Liberation March, 1972; Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry; artist Jean-Michel Basquiat; the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, 1971; the African Grove Theatre circa…
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…producer. Her expertise is Haitian, Afro-Latinx and circum-Caribbean identities within larger questions of activism, memory and migration. As a Henry MacCracken Fellow at New York University (M.A., Africana Studies), she…
Read More…in African, American, European, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian, and decorative arts, in addition to an extensive library and archive. The first floor showcases work spanning Gross’s entire career in the studio 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…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…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…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…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…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…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 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…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…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…
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