← View All

Tag: civil rights

A Look at the History of Female Nightlife Activists in the Village

Our neighborhoods have long thrived on an electric, eclectic energy that fuels creativity, rebellion, and cultural ferment. Amid the many powerful forces shaping the area’s nightlife history, women are among the pivotal yet often overlooked figures — transforming not only the local scene but the wider social and political landscape. These women were not just […]

History Remembered with Preservation and Plaques

May is coming just around the proverbial corner on our calendars. Those 31 days bring us Preservation Month, when we celebrate historic sites across the country as well as highlight the social, cultural, and economic benefits of their preservation. It’s also a good time to reflect on the noteworthy places and histories that organizations like […]

Ida Rauh: A Pioneer at the Crossection of American Theater and Civil Rights

March is Women’s History Month, and while we celebrate women’s history all year, we do so especially during this particular month when we highlight the countless women of our neighborhoods who have fought tirelessly and courageously for equality, justice, and opportunity in our nation. It is the perfect time to remember that we are continuing to […]

Village Preservation Resources for African American History Month

Welcome to February, and African American History Month! Village Preservation has long documented the stories behind the streets, buildings and people of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. Those investigations have enabled us to offer several great resources to learn more about our neighborhoods, including our African American history, including our Civil Rights and […]

Civil Rights History at 92 Grove Street

There are many sites throughout Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo that have played an important role in Black history and the struggle for civil rights in the United States. One of those sites, located in the West Village across from Sheridan Square, did so twice, in two separate centuries, in two very different […]

    ‘The Birth of a Nation’ Galvanizes a Movement #SouthOfUnionSquare

    Throughout the 20th century, the area south of Union Square attracted painters, writers, publishers, and radical social organizations, many of whom were challenging accepted American social and cultural ideals. The release on February 8, 1915 of The Birth of a Nation — a silent white supremacist propaganda film credited with both resurrecting the Ku Klux […]

    Fighting for Civil Rights at 80 Fifth Avenue

    For its entire existence over twenty years, the International Worker’s Order’s (IWO) New York City headquarters was located at 80 Fifth Avenue. 80 Fifth Avenue, at 14th Street, is located in the historically rich but endangered area south of Union Square for which Village Preservation is seeking landmark protections. Our ongoing research about the area has […]

    The Birth of the NAACP, and Their Deep Roots in Greenwich Village

    For over 100 years, the NAACP has been fighting to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons, and to eliminate race-based discrimination. Though their headquarters is now located in Baltimore, Maryland, the organization called our neighborhood home for decades, and held its first public meeting here as well. Founded […]

    Chinese American Activists Fight for Their Rights in Our Neighborhoods

    Our neighborhoods have been the home of many of history’s most important civil rights and social justice leaders, as documented in Village Preservation’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Map. Three of our lesser-known map locations, however, highlight the under-recognized stories of 19th century Chinese American immigrant-rights activists. Some of these influential individuals, families, and organizations […]

    The International Workers Order’s Fight to Protect All Americans, from 80 Fifth Avenue

    For twenty four years, the entire existence of the organization, the International Workers Order (IWO) was headquartered at 80 Fifth Avenue (southeast corner of 14th Street), an elaborately-detailed Renaissance Revival style office building designed in 1908 by Buchman and Fox. This progressive mutual-benefit fraternal organization was a pioneering force in the U.S. labor movement, which […]

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

    When we think of great African American historic sites in New York, we typically think of Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Lower Manhattan’s African Burial Ground, or Brooklyn’s Weeksville Houses. But one building that should perhaps join the list is 70 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village, which housed the headquarters of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights […]

    The long road to landmark: How NYC’s Stonewall Inn became a symbol of civil rights

    Millions converge in New York City each year in late June to celebrate events which took place in and outside of a Greenwich Village bar in 1969. The Stonewall Riots are not only be memorialized here in New York City, but those events have come to take on international significance. There are celebrations and marches in countries across the globe, […]

    Village Rallies for NAACP, with Lorraine Hansberry

    Politics and rallies have always been an integral part of the DNA of Greenwich Village. One particularly significant rally of note took place on June 13, 1959.  Dubbed “Village Rallies for NAACP,” it took place in Washington Square Park, and among the speakers was Greenwich Village’s own Lorraine Hansberry.  Hansberry was the co-chair of the […]

      African American History in the East Village

      The East Village is probably not the first neighborhood that comes to mind when most New Yorkers think about African American history.  But this incredibly rich, multi-layered neighborhood was home 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 […]

      Mapping Civil Rights and Social Justice — A Year Later

      On January 3, 2017, GVSHP launched our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map.  Something in the air told us there might be a hunger and need for this kind of information.  But even we would not have guessed that the map would receive over 70,000 views in that time, with its praises sung in BrickUnderground, […]

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

      On September 27, 1948, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, more commonly known as 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 on GVSHP’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Map (which can always be found […]

      Dissent and “Strange Fruit” in the Village

      It seems that President-elect Donald Trump is having a difficult time filling the roster for his inauguration ceremony. In previous years, the inauguration festivities have included extensive and star-studded ceremonies featuring speeches, musical performances, dance numbers, and dramatic readings. But this year, many artists have shown an unwillingness to participate, or have their work featured, in […]

      A Civil Rights Activist and the Café Society

      While we look back and honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., it’s interesting to also note that one of his early influences and closest confidantes, Bayard Rustin, had a very close connection to Greenwich Village, especially the legendary club Café Society. Bayard Rustin was a pioneering activist involved in the struggles for civil […]