Abolitionist Place
In September of 2007, Duffield Street in downtown Brooklyn got a new name. ... More
Abyssinian Baptist Church
Known for its charismatic leadership and community outreach, the Abyssinian Baptist Church was formed in 1808 by a group of African Americans and Ethiopians who refused to accept the segregated seating in the First Baptist Church of New York City. ... More
African Burial Ground
The AFBG is a federally designated historic landmark and archaeological site that was used as a cemetery by free and enslaved people of African descent during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ... More
African Free School
Soon after the Revolution, in 1785, a group of wealthy, powerful white men formed the New York Manumission Society. ... More
African Grove Theater
On Mercer Street in the fall of 1821, King Lear limped out onto stage and the audience went wild. ... More
African Society for Mutual Relief
As soon as it was legal for black New Yorkers to organize, they did so. ... More
Audubon Ballroom
Best known as the place where Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, the Audubon Ballroom has long been a center of African American social and political activity. ... More
Bedford-Stuyvesant
Bedford-Stuyvesant, also known as Bed-Stuy, is home to the largest concentration of blacks in New York City and one of the largest in the country. ... More
Bethel AME Church of Amityville
The Bethel AME Church of Amityville was the first black church on Long Island. ... More
Black Brigades
During the Revolution, at least 80,000 African Americans declared their own independence—and fled. ... More
Bridge Street AWME Church
It was October 1865, only months after the last shots of the Civil War were fired. ... More
Catherine Ferguson
Catherine (“Katy”) Ferguson was born in 1779 with almost nothing—not even freedom. ... More
Colored Orphan Asylum
If you were black and orphaned in New York in the 1800s, there was nowhere to go but the cruel streets. ... More
Downing's Oyster House
Before New York was called the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. ... More
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy Ellington (1899–1974), known as Duke Ellington, changed the sound of popular music in America and around the world. ... More
Eastville Community
Eastville, like many early free African American communities on Long Island, was multiethnic. ... More
Ebbets Field
During the first half of the twentieth century, Brooklyn, New York was the home of the proud Ebbets Field, a major league baseball stadium reminiscent of a modern Roman coliseum. ... More
Five Points
Five Points was a neighborhood around the intersection of Worth Street, Baxter Street, and Cross Street, which no longer exists. ... More
Fort Amsterdam
Fort Amsterdam was designed to be a state-of-the-art diamond-shaped fort, built of stone and bristling with cannon. ... More
Fraunces Tavern
Around the time of the American Revolution, everyone in New York knew Samuel Fraunces. ... More
Frederick Douglass
Dressed as a sailor, Frederick Bailey stepped ashore a free man, but he was not safe until the great abolitionist David Ruggles took him into his home. ... More
Freedom's Journal
Before 1827, blacks didn't exist in the newspapers, unless they committed a crime. ... More
Freetown
Freetown is a small, unincorporated hamlet within the Town of East Hampton, located along Three Mile Harbor Road between Jackson Street and Abraham's Path. ... More
Gideon and the Great Dock
On an August day in 1664, the Dutch ship Gideon reached the Great Dock in New Amsterdam. ... More
Harlem Children's Zone
In the mid 1990s, author and community leader Geoffrey Canada conceived of a new vision for Harlem. ... More
Harlem Hellfighters
On a cold February afternoon in 1919, thousands of people gathered along New York’s Fifth Avenue and swayed to music provided by military band leader James Reese. ... More
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman, or “Moses” as some called her, was worth $40,000 to anyone who could capture her and return her south. ... More
Hughson's Tavern
In the spring of 1741, all eyes were on a tavern at the corner of Liberty and Trinity Streets. ... More
James McCune Smith Pharmacy
In 1824, the aged Revolutionary War hero General Lafayette returned to America for a tour of the nation he had helped to forge. ... More
John Street Church
At the opening of the John Street Methodist Church, the priest addressed "those in the gallery," welcoming the African Americans. ... More
Joseph Lloyd Manor
Granted to James Lloyd I in 1685, Lloyd Manor encompassed approximately 3,000 acres of land on the north shore of Long Island. ... More
Lakeville
Manhasset, a hamlet in the Town of North Hempstead, had a fairly large, steadfast African American settlement in the early 19th century. ... More
Land of the Blacks
In the hills and swamps that stretched across Manhattan Island one mile north of New Amsterdam, both free and enslaved blacks began to clear the tangle of trees, vines, and shrubs to build their own homes and plant their own gardens. ... More
Langston Hughes
One of the leading voices in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Langston Hughes focused his writing on the realistic plight of black people. ... More
Latting's Hundred
Built in 1653, Latting's Hundred sheltered a succession of Long Island merchants and stood witness to private and public affairs of generations of African Americans. ... More
Lewis H. Latimer
Lewis Latimer was born free in 1848; his parents George and Rebecca Latimer made sure of that. ... More
Marcus Garvey
Thought by many blacks to be another Moses, Marcus Garvey rose from humble beginnings in Jamaica, West Indies, to become the number one advocate of the “Back to Africa movement. ... More
Minton's Playhouse
Henry Minton, a tenor saxophonist and the first black delegate to Local 802 of the musicians’ union, opened Minton’s Playhouse in 1938. ... More
Mother AME Zion Church
In the late 1700s, the Methodists of the mostly white John Street Church welcomed Africans and their descendents, and many came to worship there. ... More
New York City Draft Riots 1863
With the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil War began to be more about black freedom. ... More
Pierre Toussaint
In 1996, Pope John Paul II bestowed the title of “Venerable” on Pierre Toussaint. ... More
Ralph Ellison
The Ralph Ellison Memorial at Riverside Park on 150th Street, Manhattan New York is not your typical African American landmark in New York City. ... More
Rikers Island
On March 5, 1864, a crowd of over 10,000 New Yorkers watched in awe as 1,000 well-disciplined Union army troops left Rikers Island and marched west to the Hudson River, their dark blue uniforms and crisp white gloves and white leggings glistening in the sunlight. ... More
Samuel Ballton House
Samuel Ballton was a well-respected citizen of Greenlawn in the Town of Huntington. ... More
Sandy Ground
On February 23, 1828, Captain John Jackson purchased land in a place known as Sandy Ground on what is now Staten Island. ... More
Schomburg Library
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture holds one of the best library collections focused on black history in the world. ... More
Seneca Village
As a community of free black property owners, Seneca Village was unique in its day. ... More
Setauket
In 2005, a half-mile stretch of Christian Avenue in Setauket, NY was designated by the Town of Brookhaven as the Bethel-Christian Avenue-Laurel Hill Historic District (BCALH). ... More
Shiloh Presbyterian Church
The Shiloh Presbyterian Church boasts a long tradition of radical black leadership. ... More
Slave Market
In 1711, New York was growing quickly, and the growing needs of the city were often supplied by slave labor. ... More
Slave Revolt of 1712
In the early 1700s, New York had one of the largest slave populations of any of England’s colonies. ... More
Studio Museum in Harlem
From before this nation was formed, Africans and their descendants have contributed enormously to American culture. ... More
Tappan Brothers
Lewis and Arthur Tappan were brothers who earned a fortune importing silk from Asia. ... More
Theodore Wright House
One day in the mid-1800s, 28 men, women, and children snuck into New York City. ... More
Tontine Coffeehouse
Across from the Meal Market, where enslaved workers could be hired or bought, was the Tontine Coffee House, home of the New York Stock Exchange. ... More
Wall Street
A gang of black men labored as long as daylight allowed, digging a three-foot-deep trench from the East River all the way across Manhattan Island to the Hudson River. ... More
Weeksville
Far from the bustle and racism of Manhattan, on what was then the outskirts of Brooklyn, free blacks built a community called Weeksville. ... More
West Indian Day Parade
Many slaves brought the tradition of African outdoor ceremonies to the Caribbean. ... More
William Floyd Estate
William Floyd, the first son of Nicoll and Tabitha Floyd, was born on the south shore of Long Island in 1734. ... More
