AUTHOR: TITLE: Abolitionist Place BASENAME: abolitionist_place STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: In September of 2007, Duffield Street in downtown Brooklyn got a new name. Today, the street sign reads “Abolitionist Place,” in honor of the many people in this neighborhood who braved fines, imprisonment and death threats to continue the struggle against slavery. This activity took many forms: some spoke out from the pulpit, while others hid men, women, and children in their homes as kidnappers and slave catchers roamed the streets and docks. In the 1800s the harbor nearby was one of the busiest in the world. Hundreds of ships loaded with cotton or tobacco from the South came and went. The ships also carried stowaways bent on stealing their own freedom. Other runaways were brought here by conductors of the Underground Railroad, such as the famed Harriet Tubman. They all found shelter in the neighborhood’s churches and safe houses. In addition, they were given food and clothing collected by local women’s organizations.<br /><br />It is known that Thomas and Harriet Truesdell, both staunch abolitionists, lived at 227 Duffield. Some say the homes up and down the block were part of the Underground Railroad. Runaways were hidden in the Bridge Street AWME Church, the first African American church in Brooklyn, just two short blocks away. A 10-minute walk from Abolitionist Place was the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, known as the “Grand Central Depot” of the Underground Railroad. Abraham Lincoln came to the church, as did Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. The name Abolitionist Place honors all the men and women, both black and white, that made this neighborhood a hotbed of antislavery activity. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.692109 lon=-73.984329 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/abolitionist_place.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/abolitionist_place/images/820/MAAP_AbolitionistPlace_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Abolitionist Place, Brooklyn. Fulton and Duffield Street. image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?807861">Mid-Manhattan Library/Picture Collection/The New York Public Library </a> image_then_caption=The neighborhood around Duffield Street was a hotbed of antislavery activity. At the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, mock slave auctions raised money and a “panic of sympathy.” image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/abolitionist_place/images/820/MAAP_AbolitionistPlace_Now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Abolitionist Place site image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=In the fall of 2007, a new street sign went up. “Abolitionist Place,” at Willoughby and Duffield Streets, honors the brave antislavery efforts of this neighborhood in the 1800s. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Abyssinian Baptist Church BASENAME: abyssinian_baptist_church STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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.<br /><br />A long line of highly effective, dedicated early ministers included Rev. William Spellman (1856 –1885) and Rev. Robert D. Wynn (1885 –1902), who put the church on solid financial footing and significantly increased the membership. <br /><br />In 1908, the church selected the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., a well-known charismatic minister, as their new pastor, ushering in “the Powell years.” In 1922, the present-day Gothic- and Tudor-style Abyssinian Baptist Church was built, thanks to money collected from Powell’s tithing campaign.<br /><br />Powell retired in 1937 and his son, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., became pastor. An articulate visionary, champion of justice and equality, and power in the so-called “Black Revolution,” he served 14 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and increased the membership of the church from 7,000 to 10,000.<br /><br />Powell retired in 1971 and was succeeded by Dr. Samuel Proctor, a minister with a distinguished background as an educational leader and administrator. Dr. Proctor carried on the “Powell legacy” with the assistance of his executive minister, Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, who succeeded him in 1989.<br /><br />Dr. Butts has dramatically expanded the church’s programs throughout the greater Harlem community to include tutoring, scouting, music, housing, and health care. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.816429 lon=-73.940407 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/abyssinian_baptist_church.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/omeally_abyssinian_baptist_church.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/omeally_abyssinian_baptist_church.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/abyssinian_baptist_church/images/820/MAAP_Abyssinian_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=African-American congregation in front of Abyssinian Baptist Church at Waverly Place, New York City, c. 1907 image_then_source=Library of Congress image_then_caption=Founded in 1808 and located on Worth Street, the Abyssinian Baptist Church first moved to 166 Waverly Place (pictured) and then farther north to West 40th Street in 1902. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/abyssinian_baptist_church/images/820/19_abyssinianbaptist_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Abyssinian Baptist Church image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=In 1923, the congregation moved into the Tudor Gothic–style church at 132 West 138th Street (Odell Clark Place), where it became the largest and most influential black church in New York. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: African Burial Ground BASENAME: the_african_burial_ground STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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. It’s believed that between 10,000 and 20,000 people are buried here. The site covers approximately 7 acres and is bounded by Duane Street on the north, Chambers Street on the south, Centre and Lafayette Streets on the east, and Broadway to the west.<br /><br />In 1991, archaeological fieldwork began. While excavating a site for a new building at 290 Broadway, construction workers discovered skeletal remains of early Africans. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 because of its unprecedented potential to provide information about the lives of early Africans, including their quality of health and the region of Africa they came from. (One previously unknown fact: The mortality rate for children under 16 years old was 43% based on a sample of 301 individuals buried at the site.) The information gathered by archaeologists and historians significantly altered historical misconceptions about the life and culture of Africans. And burial practices revealed at the site reflected the cultural and religious beliefs of enslaved people that had previously been undocumented -- such as the fact that many of the people buried here had played a significant role in the building of New York City.<br /><br />Mayor David Dinkins, Lt. Gov. David Patterson, Illinois Congressman Gus Savage, Dr. Michael Blakey, and a Howard University team of researchers deserve recognition for the key role that they played in preserving this crucial part of African American history. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.71455 lon=-74.007124 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/the_african_burial_ground.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/leon_the_african_burial_ground_2.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/leon_the_african_burial_ground_2.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_african_burial_ground/images/820/MAAP_BurialGround_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=African Burial Ground image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=For most of the 1700s, and maybe earlier, Africans and their descendents kept their own burial ground north of the city and its wall. The coffins were laid facing east. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_african_burial_ground/images/820/1_africanburialground_820.jpg image_now_title=A current view of the African Burial Ground Memorial image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The African Burial Ground National Monument memorial is located at Duane and Elk Streets. An exhibit at the visitor center is located at 290 Broadway on the ground floor. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: African Free School BASENAME: african_free_school STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Soon after the Revolution, in 1785, a group of wealthy, powerful white men formed the New York Manumission Society. Although many were slave owners, their mission was to aid the enslaved, and to gradually end slavery in the state. As part of their efforts, they opened the African Free School in 1788, where the children of both free and enslaved blacks were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. The boys also studied astronomy, a skill needed by seamen, and the girls learned sewing and knitting. The school had many visitors—especially on examination days when students could show off their work to outsiders. In this way, they could prove to doubting New Yorkers that black students were "not inferior to those of fairer complexions…in acquiring a knowledge of Letters."<br /><br />The school began with about 40 students in one room. In the 1820s, as the date of freedom for New York’s slaves drew near, the enrollment grew to 800 students. By 1834, when the African Free schools were absorbed into the New York public school system, over 1,400 students were enrolled in seven school buildings.<br /><br />Many of the students of the African Free School went on to become community leaders. James McCune Smith became the first African American licensed doctor, Henry Highland Garnett was a leading abolitionist and the first African American to address Congress, and Ira Aldridge became the most famous African American actor of his day. As students, these men learned the art of public speaking. As adults, many used that skill to speak out for freedom, justice, and equality for their race. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.718452 lon=-73.997772 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/african_free_school.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/african_free_school/images/820/MAAP_AfricanFreeSchool_Then_PIC_ONLY_820.jpg image_then_title=African Free School, engraving image_then_source=Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division/ The New York Public Library. image_then_caption=This picture of African Free School #2 is based on a drawing by one of its students named Patrick Reason. He, like many of his fellow students, went on to become a leading abolitionist. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/african_free_school/images/820/17_africanfreeschool_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of African Free School site image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=African Free School #2 was located at 135-137 Mulberry Street in the neighborhood then known as Five Points. All together, there were at least seven African Free Schools in the city. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: African Grove Theater BASENAME: african_grove_theater STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>On Mercer Street in the fall of 1821, King Lear limped out onto stage and the audience went wild. Lear was black. The event was the first play staged by the first black theatrical producer, who had formed the first black theater company that went on to perform the first play written by an African American in the first black theater in the country.  The genius behind it all was William Alexander Brown. <br /><br />His venture began back in 1816 in a place Brown called The African Grove. During the summer, white New Yorkers enjoyed private “tea” gardens that offered ice cream treats, cold drinks, music, dramatic readings, and conversation. According to the papers, Brown opened the first tea garden to “which the sable race could find admission and refreshment.” It was a great success and led Brown to build the 300-seat theater on Mercer Street. Here his company staged popular versions of Shakespeare’s Richard III and Othello. They also presented original works such as King Shotaway, a play written by Brown about a black Carib revolt in the Caribbean. </p><p>But the African American theater was an annoyance to the Park Theater nearby. Stephen Price, the producer of the Park, hired white rowdies to yell and “riot” at the African Grove. When the neighbors (including Price) complained, the police shut the theater down. The African Grove became a mobile theater for several years before closing its doors.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.72578 lon=-73.997589 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/african_grove_theater.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/african_grove_theater/images/820/MAAP_AfricanGrove_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=James Hewlett as Richard III image_then_source=Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library. image_then_caption=James Hewlett (1778–1836) played Richard III (pictured) and other starring roles at the African Grove Theater. The audience loved the shows but the neighbors didn’t. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/african_grove_theater/images/820/23_africangrove_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of African Grove Theater site image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The first African Grove Theater was located on Mercer Street near Houston. It was built on the second floor of a two-story house with a large tea garden in back. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: African Society for Mutual Relief BASENAME: african_society_for_mutual_relief STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: As soon as it was legal for black New Yorkers to organize, they did so. In 1808, the African Society for Mutual Relief was founded. (The Society may have met in secret earlier, but there are no records to prove it.) At that time, black children could not go to white schools. If their parents died, white orphanages were closed to them. Insurance companies would not sell policies to African Americans. Even graveyards were segregated. As a result, the Society formed a much-needed safety net for African American families and small businesses. Members’ dues paid for burial costs and a form of health insurance. If a member died, their widow and children received help. <br /><br />In 1810, the New York Legislature granted their petition and the Society became the first incorporated African American association. Members celebrated the event with a parade and took to the streets carrying silk banners and signs. The association grew quickly. <br /><br />In the beginning money was short, but in 1820 a former Haitian slave named Juliet Toussaint donated enough money for a plot of land and a meetinghouse at 42 Baxter Street (called Orange Street then). Located in the Five Points neighborhood, the African Hall for Mutual Relief became an important meeting place, a school, and a stop on the Underground Railroad. It was also a target. In the anti-abolitionist riot of 1834, a white mob attacked the Hall, breaking all the windows and wrecking the place. But the society survived that riot, as well as the draft riot of 1863, and lasted until 1945. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.715565 lon=-74.000572 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/african_society_for_mutual_relief.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/african_society_for_mutual_relief/images/820/MAAP_AfricanSociety_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Portrait of Juliet Noel (Mrs. Pierre Toussaint) image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=Juliet Toussaint, a member of the growing Haitian community in New York, donated money for the African Hall for Mutual Relief in 1820. The hall was located at 42 Baxter Street. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/african_society_for_mutual_relief/images/820/62_africansocietymutualrelief_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of where the African Society for Mutual Relief once stood image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The New York African Society for Mutual Relief at 42 Baxter Street was targeted in two riots in the 1800s. It later moved uptown and survived until 1945. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Audubon Ballroom BASENAME: the_audubon_ballroom STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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.<br /><br />Located at 3940 Broadway between 165th and 166th Streets in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, the theater was developed by William Fox, a Hungarian immigrant who founded the Fox Film Company in 1915.<br /><br />Designed by Thomas Lamb, one of the leading theater designers of the time, the building’s Broadway façade featured a three-dimensional terra cotta boat with the head of Neptune, based on the mythical ship Argo of Jason and the Argonauts fame.<br /><br />The ballroom, located on the 2nd floor, served as a venue for a number of important historical events, such as the meeting place for the Municipal Transit Workers Union. It also was the venue for the annual New York Mardis Gras festival, when a King and Queen of Harlem were crowned.<br /><br />More recently the site has been controversial because of a plan by the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, which purchased the property from the city of New York, to raze it and build a medical research center.<br /><br />African Americans protested the demolition and a compromise was reached, whereby part of the original building would remain and a memorial to Malcolm X would be created. A statue of Malcolm X now stands in the Broadway lobby. In 1997, David Graves, a California artist, created a 12-by-63-feet mural to honor Malcolm X’s achievements. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.839142 lon=-73.940994 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/the_audubon_ballroom.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/desir_audubon_ballroom_1.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/desir_audubon_ballroom_1.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_audubon_ballroom/images/820/MAAP_AudubonBallroom_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=The Audubon Ballroom image_then_source=© AP Photo image_then_caption=The Audubon Ballroom included a theater as well as meeting halls. Many labor, political, and religious groups met there, including Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_audubon_ballroom/images/820/57_audubonballroom_820.jpg image_now_title=A current view of the Audubon Ballroom image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The site now boasts the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, where three multi- media kiosks provide the largest exhibit on Malcolm X in the world. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Bedford-Stuyvesant BASENAME: bed_stuy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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. The earliest Africans to live here were enslaved. They worked the fields and tended to the house chores for their Dutch, and later English, masters. But as early as the 1830s, free blacks arrived in the area, bought land, built homes, and planted gardens. Weeksville, as the first black community in this area was called, lay at the rural edge of settled Brooklyn. Its isolation made it a safer place for blacks escaping slavery as well as a refuge from racist violence for free blacks. After the Anti-Abolitionist riots of 1834 and the deadly Draft Riots of 1863, many blacks left Manhattan and moved to Weeksville, as well as to nearby Williamsburg and Bedford. <br /><br />Built around a new railroad station, Bedford grew and eventually included the old village of Weeksville. Blacks continued to move to Bedford along with German, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Greek, and Irish immigrants. The neighborhood expanded to include Stuyvesant Heights. By 1940, Bed-Stuy was only 25 percent black. It was only after World War II that Bed-Stuy became mostly black. This enabled the community to go to the polls in 1960 and elect Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. <br /><br />Today a new diversity and a new pride can be seen in Bed-Stuy. Locals boast of its many stars of film and music. As a banner hung on Restoration Plaza declares, the feeling is “Bed-Stuy and Proud of It.” ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.680195 lon=-73.94594 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/bed_stuy.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/bed_stuy/images/820/MAAP_BedfordStuyvesant_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=View of Bedford-Stuyvesant image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=What began in the 1830s as a small, rural black community in Weeksville has grown into Bedford-Stuyvesant, home of the largest concentration of blacks in the city and one of the largest in the nation. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/bed_stuy/images/820/67_BedfordStuyvesant_Now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Restoration Plaza, Bedford-Stuyvesant image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Today a new pride can be felt in the community. At Restoration Plaza, a cultural center located at 1368 Fulton Street, a banner declares "Bed-Stuy and Proud of It." ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Bethel AME Church of Amityville BASENAME: bethel_ame_church STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>The Bethel AME Church of Amityville was the first black church on Long Island. Daniel Squires and Delaney H. Miller organized the church in 1815 after founding the Sunday school one year earlier. The school and church met in the homes of Amityville residents for the next 20 years.</p><p>In 1839, Elias and Fanny Hunter offered land on Albany Avenue to the congregation but it would take four more years for the church to call this home. A building previously used as an icehouse was donated in 1843, and moved to the site on Albany Avenue. This small building was refurbished and served as the first church building for the Bethel AME Church in Amityville.</p><p>Squires, Miller, Hunter, Fowler, Brewster, Devine, and Steel are among of the oldest black family names in Amityville. People of African descent moved to Amityville in the 18th century seeking work and others were brought there enslaved. The large farms that dotted the landscape required seasonal labor.</p><p>Benjamin Bates served as the first pastor for the Bethel AME Church. He travelled from Jamaica, Queens each Sunday by foot to preach to the congregation until they were able to provide him with a horse.</p><p>The Church included an auditorium, stained glass windows, and a steeple by 1843. The congregation continued to grow, and in the 1960s, the Church moved to a larger building at its current location in Copiague. The Church’s original building on Albany Avenue was destroyed by a fire in the 1980s.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.6976 lon=-73.410376 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/bethel_ame_church.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/day_bethel_ame_church.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/day_bethel_ame_church.mov image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/bethel_ame_church/images//820/bethelame_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Bethel AME Church, Amityville image_then_source=Amityville Historical Society image_then_caption=By 1843, the Amityville Bethel AME Church included an auditorium for the Sunday School, stained-glass windows, and a steeple. The congregation grew over the years and in the 1960s, the church moved to a new, larger building at its current location in Copiague. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/bethel_ame_church/images//820/bethelame_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Site of Bethel AME Church of Amityville image_now_source=<a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ANTHRO/cfpa/cfpa_about.html" target="_blank">Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University</a> image_now_caption=The Bethel AME Church of Amityville once stood on Albany Avenue. The building was destroyed by fire in the 1980s, but the congregation continues to worship in Copiague. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Black Brigades BASENAME: black_brigades STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: During the Revolution, at least 80,000 African Americans declared their own independence—and fled. The British had promised freedom to any slave who left a rebel master (but not a loyal one) and made it to British lines. Harry Washington, whose owner was the patriot General George Washington, was one of 800 who reached British lines in Virginia. He fought for “Liberty to Slaves” in an all-black regiment, and when the British left that colony for New York, he went with them.<br /><br />By 1780, there were more than 10,000 blacks living in a British-occupied New York. Many lived in a “canvas city” of shanties and tents that sprang up between Broadway and the Hudson River. The area had been burned to the ground when the patriots abandoned the city. Blacks who fought with the British, like Harry Washington, lived in “Negro barracks” at 18 Broadway, 10 Church Street, and elsewhere. These men fought in units known as the Black Pioneers and the Black Brigade. Most did the hard support work the army needed, but some were armed and fought. The most famous Black Pioneer was Colonel Tye, who led 800 men in a guerrilla war against the patriots in Staten Island and New Jersey.<br /><br />When peace came, so did the slave hunters. In 1783, they roamed the city, seizing blacks from the streets and even from their beds. But much to General Washington’s dismay, the British refused to return those slaves who had been promised freedom. Instead, their names were written in the “The Book of Negroes,” and some 3,000 free African Americans climbed aboard British ships and sailed away. Harry Washington would eventually reach a place in Africa not far from where he was born. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.709984 lon=-74.011513 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/black_brigades.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/black_brigades/images/820/MAAP_BlackBrigade_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Black Brigades. Book of Negroes, Loyalist refugees from New York, in 1783. image_then_source=© Nova Scotia Museum 2008. All rights reserved. Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax image_then_caption=The handwritten “Book of Negroes” lists the names of some 3,000 African Americans who left New York City with the British. The book is located in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/black_brigades/images/820/15_blackbrigade1_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of 10 Church Street, site of the Black Brigades' barracks image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=During the Revolution, many members of the Black Brigades or Black Pioneers who fought with the British lived in “Negro barracks” at 10 Church Street and elsewhere. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Booker T. Washington House BASENAME: booker_t_washington STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856, and labored on the Burroughs tobacco farm in Virginia. Nine years later, he and his family were freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation and moved to West Virginia, where he worked in the salt mines while attending school. He later attended Hampton Institute, which had been founded in 1868 to offer opportunities to southern African Americans. Years later in 1881 Washington capitalized on his experience at the Institute to found the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He presided over the University until his death in 1915. Washington is remembered as an educator, author, proponent for African American education, and a prominent leader in the African American community.<br /><br />Between the years 1911 and 1915, Washington traveled from Alabama to Fort Salonga for rest and relief from the hottest months of the summer. Located on the north shore of Long Island in the Town of Huntington, Fort Salonga was a peaceful, scenic place for the Washington family to spend their vacations. Their two-story summer home stood on a bluff overlooking Long Island Sound and the family worshipped at the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Huntington. Washington taught Sunday school there, and gave several speeches in the area. His house still stands but it is threatened by coastal erosion and local development.<br /><br />Washington authored four books, including the autobiographical <em>Up From Slavery</em>. He spent the last few summers of his life in Fort Salonga, leaving behind a legacy of activism in causes related to African American rights and education in both the North and South. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.92483 lon=-73.300095 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/booker_t_washington.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/abidally_booker_t_washington.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/abidally_booker_t_washington.mov image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/booker_t_washington/images//820/bookertwashingtonthen_820.jpg image_then_title=Portrait of Booker T. Washington image_then_source=Library of Congress Prints and Photographic Division, LC-USZ62-49568 image_then_caption=Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856. Founding the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and publishing Up from Slavery, Washington was among the most influential people of his time. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/booker_t_washington/images/820/bookertwashingtonnow_820.jpg image_now_title=View of the Booker T. Washington House image_now_source=Friends of the Booker T. Washington House image_now_caption=Booker T. Washington's summer home is privately owned. Community based efforts to preserve and restore the house are ongoing. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Bridge Street AWME Church BASENAME: bridge_street_awme_church STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: It was October 1865, only months after the last shots of the Civil War were fired. People in Brooklyn opened their newspaper, the Brooklyn Eagle, to learn that “Last evening an immense congregation, fully half consisting of whites, was present at the African M. E. Church in Bridge street.” What brought so many white people to the black church? Harriet Tubman, the most famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, was speaking. Moses, as she was called, was in a familiar place. Before the Civil War she had led some 300 enslaved men, women, and children to freedom by hiding in “stations” such as the Bridge Street Church during the day and traveling at night. <br /><br />The original church, known as the Sand Street Methodist Episcopal Church, was founded by a British army captain in 1766. He first led open-air services for a congregation of blacks, whites, and Indians near the banks of the East River. The congregation grew and the church moved indoors. Unfortunately, racism eventually developed, and the African Americans were first segregated and then barred from the altar and charged a fee for worshiping. <br /><br />The black worshipers broke away in 1816 and organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church on High Street. Later, when it moved, it was called the Bridge Street Church. The congregation could claim many firsts. They had the first black church in Brooklyn. It was located in Weeksville, one of the first black communities in the city. And in 1827, the congregation opened Brooklyn’s first school for black children. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.694324 lon=-73.985168 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/bridge_street_awme_church.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/bridge_street_awme_church/images/820/MAAP_BridgeSt_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Where Bridge Street AWME Church once stood image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=Runaway slaves were once hidden in the basement of the Bridge Street Church at 311 Bridge Street. Today the site is the Student Center of Polytechnic University. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/bridge_street_awme_church/images/820/50_BridgeSt_Now_820.jpg image_now_title=Bridge Street AWME Church today image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Today the Bridge Street AWME Church is located at 277 Stuyvesant Avenue, where it continues to attract many new parishioners from Africa and Latin America. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Catherine Ferguson BASENAME: catherine_ferguson STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>Catherine (“Katy”) Ferguson was born in 1779 with almost nothing—not even freedom. Her mother was sold away when she was 8 years old. That was when Katy became determined to gain her freedom and make the world a better place. She did both.<br /><br />First she wanted to learn to read. Her mistress said she was too smart already—smarter than her own children — and refused her. At the age of 10 she asked her master for her freedom, promising to live a life serving God. He refused her. At 16 she found a woman who agreed to purchase her freedom for $200 if Katy would repay her. It took Katy 11 months of work to pay $100 back; then someone in her church paid the remaining debt. Katy was finally free. <br /><br />To make a living she made wedding cakes, the best in town. The rest of the time she helped others. She began to take children in off the street on Sundays and got others to teach them to read the Bible.  When her minister heard what she was doing, he offered to move the group to the basement of his church. Some say this was the first Sunday school in the city. <br /><br />Katy also took in a total of 48 needy children, 20 of them white. She cared for them, fed them, and found them all good homes. When Ferguson died, the newspapers wrote, “Thousands in this community have heard of or known Katy Ferguson…the celebrated cake-maker for weddings and other social parties. But many…may be ignorant of the… extraordinary good deeds which crowned her life.” The reporter also said that wherever Katy lived, the whole neighborhood became a better place for it.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.714657 lon=-74.009094 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/catherine_ferguson.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/catherine_ferguson/images/820/MAAP_CatherineFerguson_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Catherine Ferguson image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=Catherine Ferguson, or “Katy” as she was called, was determined from the age of 8 to gain her freedom and make the world a better place. She did both. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/catherine_ferguson/images/820/27_catherineferguson_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of where Catherine Ferguson's home stood image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Children, both black and white, came to Ferguson’s home at 51 Warren Street to learn to read the bible. Some say this was the first Sunday school in New York City. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Colored Orphan Asylum BASENAME: colored_orphan_asylum STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: If you were black and orphaned in New York in the 1800s, there was nowhere to go but the cruel streets. So in 1836, three Quakers, Anna and Hanna Shotwell and Mary Murray, founded the Colored Orphan Asylum to provide assistance to homeless and destitute black children. It was the first such institution in America. In 1846, the brilliant and socially-minded Dr. James McCune Smith, the country’s first licensed black medical doctor, became the orphanage’s medical director, where he and other like-minded members of the black community encouraged the children of the orphanage to seek skilled jobs when they left the orphanage.<br /><br />Housed in a four-story building with two wings of three stories each, on Fifth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Street, the building was home to an average of 400 children annually.<br /><br />The orphanage is remembered best not for the good it did, but for what happened to it on July 13, 1863. On that day a hate-filled mob of white men and women ransacked the building, looting and burning it to the ground, igniting the New York City draft riots of 1863. The 233 children in residence were led to safety by the matron, barely escaping with their lives.<br /><br />Two firemen, Chief Engineer Decker and Paddy McCaffrey showed exceptional bravery trying in vain to put out the fire, risking their lives to help save the orphans from the fire and the angry mob.<br /><br />The orphanage was re-established on 51st Street and later moved to 143rd Street between Amsterdam and Broadway in Harlem. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.754122 lon=-73.980377 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/colored_orphan_asylum.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_colored_orphan_asylum.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_colored_orphan_asylum.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/colored_orphan_asylum/images/820/MAAP_ColoredOrphan_Then_820.jpg image_then_title= The riots in New York: destruction of the Colored Orphan Asylum image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?423295">NYPL Digital Gallery</a> image_then_caption=On July 13, 1863, as 233 children were led from the back door to safety, a white mob attacked the Colored Orphan Asylum and burned it to the ground during the city’s deadliest riot. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/colored_orphan_asylum/images/820/34_ABG0021_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of where the Colored Orphan Asylum once stood image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=In 1863, the Colored Orphan Asylum was located on Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets. From there it moved to Harlem and finally to the Bronx. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: David Ruggles Home BASENAME: david_ruggles_home STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: David Ruggles might have been the most hated activist of his day. One slave catcher screamed that he would give "a thousand dollars if I had …Ruggles in my hands as he is the leader." And Ruggles was just that—a leader against slavery. He came to New York around 1827 from Connecticut, where he was born free. When he arrived he was 17 years old—and fearless, determined, and educated. <br /><br />The year 1827 was a time of parades celebrating the end of slavery in New York. More and more runaways were arriving from the South every day. But right behind them were the slave catchers. Called "blackbirders," they roamed the streets looking to reclaim some of the runaways and even to kidnap free blacks. No black person was safe. Ruggles saw how dangerous the city was and decided to do something about it. <br /><br />In 1835, he and several other young black activists founded the New York Committee of Vigilance. Ruggles and the rest of the Committee protected runaways and confronted the slave catchers. He made the city government grant jury trials to slaves who were recaptured, and he obtained lawyers for them. He personally helped as many as 600 fugitives, including the now-famous Frederick Douglass. He also ran an antislavery bookstore until it was destroyed by a mob. In addition, he wrote hundreds of articles. He bought a printing press and published his own pamphlets and a magazine called Mirror of Liberty. It was the first periodical published by a black American. But after 20 years of activism, Ruggles was nearly blind and seriously ill. Many, including Frederick Douglass, came to his aid. Ruggles died in Massachusetts in 1849. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.719512 lon=-74.002821 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/david_ruggles_home.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/david_ruggles_home/images/820/MAAP_DavidRuggles_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=David Ruggles image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=David Ruggles was the leading, and possibly the most hated, abolitionist in New York City. His courage, activism, and writings made the city a safer place for fugitives and free blacks. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/david_ruggles_home/images/820/35_ruggles_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view: the site of David Ruggles' House image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Ruggles sheltered runaway Frederick Douglass here at 36 Lispenard Street. He also ran a boarding house at 67 Lispenard that was a meeting place for abolitionists. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Downing's Oyster House BASENAME: downing-s_oyster_house STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Before New York was called the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. New York was famous for its oysters. And Thomas Downing, a free black man, owned the most famous oyster house of all. Bankers, politicians, stockbrokers, lawyers, businessmen, and socialites flocked to Downing’s Oyster House to eat raw, fried, or stewed oysters, oyster pie, fish with oyster sauce, or poached turkey stuffed with oysters. As the crowd of power brokers ate and made deals under the chandeliers, Thomas’s son George lead escaping slaves to the basement. There they were safe from the “blackbirders,” or bounty hunters, who were roaming the streets in search of runaways. <br /><br />From 1825 to 1860, Thomas, and his son George T. Downing were part of the Underground Railroad to Canada and freedom. They were also leaders in the growing abolitionist movement. In 1836, Thomas helped found the all-black United Anti-Slavery Society of the City of New York. The next year he began petitioning New York State for equal suffrage for black men. He took one petition after another to Albany. "If one petition failed, another would be presented," he said. When not a single high school in the city would accept African American students, he helped found the first schools that would accept them. According to his son, Thomas Downing was an "extremely active" man who "knew not tire."<br /><br />When Thomas Downing died on April 10, 1866, the New York Chamber of Commerce closed for the day out of respect. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.706951 lon=-74.010765 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/downing-s_oyster_house.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/downing-s_oyster_house/images/820/MAAP_DowningOyster_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=George Downing’s Oyster House image_then_source=© Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/Art Resource image_then_caption=Thomas Downing rowed out to the boats to pick over the oysters before the ships reached the oyster barges along the East River. Downing’s Oyster House served only the best. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/downing-s_oyster_house/images/820/29_georgedowningoyster_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of where Downing's Oyster House stood image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Downing’s Oyster House was located at 5 Broad Street, but his basements, where fresh oysters were stored and escaping slaves were hidden, included numbers 3, 5, and 7 Broad Street. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Duke Ellington BASENAME: duke_ellington STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Edward Kennedy Ellington (1899–1974), known as Duke Ellington, changed the sound of popular music in America and around the world. He began by playing the piano at age 7. In 1917 he formed his first band, called The Duke’s Serenaders. They played in their hometown of Washington D. C. until Ellington left the comforts of home for the creative energy and opportunity of Harlem. Once there, Ellington’s band played frequent gigs at the famous Cotton Club. It was a whites only club, but fans could tune in to hear live broadcasts of the shows. The Duke became famous and his band played on throughout the Great Depression.<br /><br />Over a span of 50 years Ellington wrote music for 3-minute records, for movies, the theater, orchestras, and the church. He played and led a band that toured the world, giving 20,000 performances and changing the sound of music wherever they went. Ellington received 13 Grammy Awards and 16 university degrees. He was awarded the President’s Gold Medal by President Johnson, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Nixon. The country of France gave him their highest award, the Legion of Honor. But the highest praise was from his fellow musicians. The great Miles Davis said, “I think all the musicians in jazz should get together on one certain day and get down on their knees to thank Duke.”<br /><br />Duke Ellington died in New York in 1974. On the day of the funeral a black man, who had come down from Harlem, said, "I'm just here to bear witness. A man passed through and he was a giant." ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.79711 lon=-73.94909 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/duke_ellington.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/omeally_duke_ellington.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/omeally_duke_ellington.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/duke_ellington/images/820/MAAP_DukeEllington_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Duke Ellington (1899-1974) image_then_source=© Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=Duke Ellington was a composer, musician, and bandleader who changed the sound of American music and took its new sound around the world. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/duke_ellington/images/820/43_ABG4544_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Duke Ellington Memorial image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The Duke Ellington Memorial towers 25 feet over Duke Ellington Circle. It is located at the northeast corner of Central Park at 110th Street and 5th Avenue. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Eastville Community BASENAME: eastville STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Eastville, like many early free African American communities on Long Island, was multiethnic. African Americans arrived in Sag Harbor, New York seeking employment in the profitable whaling business sometime prior to 1840. They joined Native Americans, Montauk, and Shinnecock people, who were skilled whalers and lived in the area. A few families of European descent also moved to the community settling along Hempstead Street and Liberty Streets, the earliest roads in the small settlement. Many attended services at the Methodist Church in downtown Sag Harbor, where African Americans and Native Americans were segregated to the balconies and areas to the rear of the Church.<br /><br />Around 1840, Lewis Cuffee, Charles Plato, and William Prime organized the St. David AME Zion Church, which served as a unifying force for the Eastville community. They, along with David Hempstead, all outstanding members of Sag Harbor's black and Indian communities, were instrumental in constructing the Church building on Eastville Avenue. David Hempstead, respected for his kindness, generosity, and faith, became a leader in the Church and was buried in Eastville's cemetery.<br /><br />After 1840, the whaling industry began to decline and men of Eastville sought income in other seafaring ways. Many took to clamming, while women continued as domestic workers in the homes of wealthy white people who lived in downtown Sag Harbor. As early as 1847 a shift to factory work occurred. A second wave of economically advantaged African Americans arrived beginning in the late 19th century and rented summer homes in Eastville. Many became full-time residents.<br /><br />Today, some Eastville residents are descendants of these early families and many original houses are still standing, occupied by private residents. The Eastville Community Historical Society maintains the history of the neighborhood and operates out of a Sears Roebuck house formerly inhabited by the Johnson family located at 139 Hampton Street. It remains the primary repository for the community's history. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.997585 lon=-72.284321 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/eastville.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/day_eastville_1.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/day_eastville_1.mov image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/eastville/images//820/eastville_then_820.jpg image_then_title=St. David AME Zion Church image_then_source=Sag Harbor Historical Society image_then_caption=The St. David AME Zion Church was founded in 1840 by African Americans and Native Americans. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/eastville/images//820/eastville_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the St. David AME Zion Church, Eastville, Sag Harbor image_now_source=<a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ANTHRO/cfpa/cfpa_about.html" target="_blank">Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University</a> image_now_caption=The St. David AME Zion Church served as the center of the Eastville community in the nineteenth century. Today it serves the descendants of Native Americans and African Americans who founded it and the community on Long Island. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Ebbets Field BASENAME: ebbets_field STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>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. Every baseball season, the Brooklyn Dodgers would suit up and prepare for battle against formidable foes in the pursuit of greatness, and loyal spectators would cheer their dear Dodgers towards victory. Throughout the years, Ebbets Field and the diverse populations that frequented it witnessed incredible triumphs on the baseball diamond, including one of the most important achievements in African American history.<br /><br />Located in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, Ebbets Field was constructed in 1913, costing $750,000 to complete. Its home team was the Brooklyn Robins, renamed the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1932 . Interest in the Dodgers increased exponentially, requiring constant reconstruction of its stadium so that it accommodated fans from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. In essence, the Brooklyn Dodgers were the archetypal baseball team of a “New America,” representing an ever-expanding population of New Yorkers. <br /><br />In 1947 the General Manager of the Dodgers, Branch Rickey, placed Jackie Robinson, a black man, on the Dodgers’ roster, making him the first African American to ever break the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Robinson undoubtedly faced incredible levels of racism during the beginning stages of playing for the Dodgers, but in Robinson, Rickey found a player “with the guts not to fight back.”  During the years he spent with the Brooklyn Dodgers playing in Ebbets Field, Robinson proved that limitations could be transcended, opening the doors for other African American baseball players to soon join the major leagues years before Brown vs. Board of Education legally outlawed segregation.<br /><br />The Dodgers were moved to Los Angeles in 1957, leaving an empty, decrepit baseball diamond in the middle of Flatbush that was finally demolished in 1960.  To this day, the site of the former Ebbets Field is nothing but rubble, with housing projects built over the remains of the stadium.  It is said by some that the state of Ebbets Field today is an “American tragedy,” and one can only wonder if anyone will ever endow the site with a reminder of all the great accomplishments that took place there.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.664239 lon=-73.957343 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/ebbets_field.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/ebbets_field/images//820/EbbetsThen_820.jpg image_then_title=Historic View of Ebbets Field image_then_source=Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ebbets1913OpeningDay.jpg image_then_caption=Architect Clarence Randall Van Buskirk designed Ebbets Field with an emphasis on aesthetic details like marble tiling and chandeliers, differentiating the Dodgers' ballpark from other stadiums in the country. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/ebbets_field/images//820/Ebbetsnow_820.jpg image_now_title=Shot of Ebbets Apartments, formerly Ebbets Field image_now_source=<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Brooklyn-Crown_Heights_Ebbets_Field_Apartments.jpg">Wikipedia</a> image_now_caption=Ebbets Field was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, where Jackie Robinson played. This picture was taken in 2007. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Execution Grounds BASENAME: execution_grounds STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: The year 1741 started out badly. Poor whites and blacks lived in fear of freezing or starving to death. There were food shortages and the winter set records as the coldest known. And then there were fires. First the governor’s house in Fort George burned to the ground. Then there were four fires in one day. People panicked, thinking it was a slave uprising—their worst fear.  Africans were one-fifth of the community’s population, and there had been violent uprisings in the past and in other places. A hunt for the conspirators began, as more fires were set. <br /><br />In this climate of hysteria, a grand jury quickly agreed that there was a plot to burn the city and kill its inhabitants. It was thought that there were ringleaders and that they must be white. The first arrested, mostly black men and a few whites, were thrown into jail in the basement of City Hall, where they were questioned and probably beaten. Large rewards, including freedom from indenture, were offered to any who would give evidence. An indentured servant named Mary Burton was the first to name names. She described a great plot, led by white ringleaders. This was just what the investigators wanted to hear. Soon others agreed to give names. It was not long before 160 black and 21 white men and women were arrested in “The Great Negro Plot.”<br /><br />At trial the accused had no legal representation. All the lawyers were working for the prosecution. At least 34 people were convicted and brought to the Execution Grounds. Seventeen blacks were hanged, as well as four white “ringleaders.” Thirteen Africans were burned at the stake. The events were remembered as the “Bonfires of the Negroes.” An additional 70 enslaved African Americans were shipped to the Caribbean and sold. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.71434 lon=-74.002632 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/execution_grounds.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_execution_grounds.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_execution_grounds.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/execution_grounds/images/820/MAAP_ExecutionGrounds_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Execution Grounds: Foley Square image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=During the hysteria of the “Great Negro Plot,” 17 African Americans were hung and 13 were burned at the stake. The execution grounds were located on the African Burial Ground. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/execution_grounds/images/820/12_executiongrounds_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Execution Grounds: Foley Square image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=What was the execution grounds in 1741 is now Foley Square, located between Lafayette and Centre Streets. The four white people convicted in the plot were hung near the East River. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Five Points BASENAME: five_points STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Five Points was a neighborhood around the intersection of Worth Street, Baxter Street, and Cross Street, which no longer exists. It became a world-famous slum in the 1840s. In colonial times, however, it was a quiet place north of the city that included a pond, marshes, and a hill that overlooked it all. Africans buried their dead near the pond and lived nearby in a large area called “Land of the Blacks.” <br /><br />By the early 1800s, however, the city was growing and housing was needed. The hill was removed and its earth, along with garbage, dumped into the pond. Homes and businesses were built on this landfill, but the ground was soft and damp; the houses soon began to rot and topple, and the unpaved streets turned to mud. As the housing decayed, New York’s first slum was born. Poor Irish and German immigrants moved in to live alongside the African Americans there. <br /><br />The neighborhood became famous for crime and disease. But, more happily, it was also known for dance. Competitions between Irish and black musicians and dancers helped to invent a brand new dance form called tap dance. <br /><br />Five Points was also where many abolitionist organizations were located. There was the Chatham Chapel, where black and white abolitionists met, and the African American Mutual Relief Hall. Churches such St. Philip’s African Episcopal Church and the African Bethlehem Church were part of the Underground Railroad, as were many of the homes in the area. Five Points was a dangerous neighborhood, but it was also a safe haven for those fleeing slavery. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.714359 lon=-74.00045 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/five_points.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_five_points.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_five_points.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/five_points/images/820/MAAP_FivePoints_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Midsummer in the Five Points. image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?801458">Mid-Manhattan Library/Picture Collection/The New York Public Library </a> image_then_caption=In the 1830s, free blacks and Irish and German immigrants lived crowded together in Five Points. “The most dangerous place in the city” was also a safe haven for those escaping slavery. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/five_points/images/820/31_fivepoints_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Five Points intersection image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Five Points got its name from 5 corners where Anthony (now Worth) Street, Orange (now Baxter) Street, and Cross Street (which no longer exists) met. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Fort Amsterdam BASENAME: fort_amsterdam STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Fort Amsterdam was designed to be a state-of-the-art diamond-shaped fort, built of stone and bristling with cannon. The designer warned against building it in haste. However, in 1625, the town was in desperate need of houses, so a much simpler fort was planned. It would be roughly a square of four simple brick walls, mounded over with dirt.<br /><br />To build the fort, Peter Minuit needed laborers, and in 1626 he got just what he needed. The Dutch West India Company sent the first African “bondsmen” to New Amsterdam. Some of their names described their origins: Antony Congo, Paulo d’Angola, Pieter San Tomé, Anthony the Portuguese, Jan Fort Orange. Many of the men had been captured from Spanish or Portuguese ships. They were experienced seamen who already understood some European languages, religions, and laws. <br /><br />For 10 years the men worked to build the fort. They dug up tree stumps, hauled dirt, mounded it up over the fort walls, and battered it down firmly. Finally, the Africans covered the earthen walls of the fort with sod. But as soon as it was finished, the fort began to crumble. The settlers didn’t usually fence their animals, so goats, sheep, and cattle strayed onto the weedy slopes to graze. Pigs went there to dig or rout in the dirt walls. In the words of one settler, the fort soon looked “like a molehill or a tottering wall.” But the Africans were busy elsewhere. They had to dig ditches, clear land, plant and harvest crops, build houses, roads, and bridges, and load the Company’s ships with thousands of pelts of beaver, mink, otter, and wildcat. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.704914 lon=-74.014008 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/fort_amsterdam.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_fort_amsterdam.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_fort_amsterdam.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/fort_amsterdam/images/820/MAAP_FtAmsterdam_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=View of New Amsterdam image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/ The Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=This picture shows Fort Amsterdam, and the Dutch Church built within it, behind a row of houses. On the shore you can see the company weighing beam and a tall crane used to unload cargo. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/fort_amsterdam/images/820/3_ftamsterdam_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Fort Amsterdam site image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The site of Fort Amsterdam, once used as a refuge for white settlers from Native Americans, is now occupied by the Museum of the American Indian. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Fraunces Tavern BASENAME: fraunces_tavern STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Around the time of the American Revolution, everyone in New York knew Samuel Fraunces. He ran the best tavern in town, supported the patriot cause, and was a trusted aid to George Washington himself. His daughter, Phoebe, once saved the General’s life when she foiled a plot to poison him. But today little is known about Samuel Fraunces—even his race is a bit of a mystery. He was called “Black Sam,” but he was, and still is, described as being white, Negro, “colored,” Haitian, and mulatto. <br /><br />Samuel Fraunces came to New York City from the Caribbean and in 1762 opened what is now called Fraunces Tavern. From the start his tavern was famous for its great food and fine wines, but today Fraunces Tavern is known for the history that was made there: it’s where New York’s Sons of Liberty met and planned their own Boston-style tea party. After the group dumped English tea in the harbor, the British occupied the city, and Samuel Fraunces moved his family to safety in New Jersey. Then he signed up as a patriot soldier and fought with George Washington. He also spied for the patriot cause, gave money, and housed and fed American soldiers and prisoners. When the British finally sailed away, a great celebration in honor of “Evacuation Day” was held in the Fraunces Tavern. A week later, Washington made a famous farewell speech to his officers there. <br /><br />After the war Washington thanked Fraunces for giving so much “…to the cause of our country and its independence and freedom,” and Congress sent him a letter citing both his generous support of American prisoners and his secret service during the war. Samuel Fraunces died in 1795. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.703495 lon=-74.011452 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/fraunces_tavern.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_fraunces_tavern.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_fraunces_tavern.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/fraunces_tavern/images/820/MAAP_Fraunces_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Fraunces Tavern - Long Room image_then_source=© AP Photo image_then_caption=Samuel Fraunces, known as “Black Sam,” bought 54 Pearl Street for a tavern in 1762. Well known in its day, Fraunces Tavern became famous for the history made there. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/fraunces_tavern/images/820/13_frauncestavern_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Fraunces Tavern image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Today Fraunces Tavern is a museum operated by the Sons of the Revolution. Built in 1719 as an elegant home, the building is one of the oldest standing in Manhattan. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Frederick Douglass BASENAME: frederick_douglass STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>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. In 1838, New York was crawling with slave catchers. Within days, Frederick sent for his fiancée, married, and moved to a safer city. Then he changed his name to Frederick Douglass. <br /><br />Frederick Douglass was not only self-emancipated, he was self-educated too. As a boy, he started learning the alphabet on his own, which horrified his master. Reading and writing would make the boy unfit to be a slave. Thus, young Frederick grasped the importance of learning to read, and he began trading bread with poor white kids for lessons. He saved money to buy a book about freedom and liberty. He read secretly and learned how to write and speak well—very well. When William Lloyd Garrison heard Douglass speak, he asked him to lecture for the Anti-Slavery Society. And so began a new career for Douglass that would last a lifetime.  </p><p>Douglass spoke against slavery, for women’s rights, and for justice. He lectured across the country and in Europe. He spoke with presidents and world leaders. He was called one of the greatest speakers of the century. In addition, Douglass wrote books, articles, and essays that are still read today. And in 1847 he began publishing his own newspaper—The North Star—which broadcast his message to thousands of readers. He served as United States Marshal and Recorder of Deeds for the U.S. government and as Minister-General to the Republic of Haiti. Douglass continued lecturing and writing up until his death in 1895.  </p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.719852 lon=-74.00355 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/frederick_douglass.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/frederick_douglass/images/820/then_frederick_douglass_820.jpg image_then_title=Portrait of Frederick Douglass image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?485472">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/Photographs and Prints Division/The New York Public Library </a> image_then_caption=Born in 1818, Frederick Douglass was the most famous African American of the 19th century and has been called the father of the civil rights movement. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/frederick_douglass/images/820/40_ABG3069_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of David Ruggles' House, where Frederick Douglass was sheltered image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Frederick Douglass found a refuge from slave catchers when he met David Ruggles who welcomed him into his home at 36 Lispenard Street. Today a plaque there tells the story. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Freedom's Journal BASENAME: freedom-s_journal STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Before 1827, blacks didn't exist in the newspapers, unless they committed a crime. African American weddings, births, deaths, and accomplishments were not to be found in a newspaper anywhere in the United States. But the year 1827 saw big changes. New York finally abolished slavery, and two young black men, John Brown Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish, founded Freedom's Journal. It was the first African American owned and operated newspaper in the country.<br /><br />For most of the black community, reading came only after freedom, since it had been forbidden under slavery. To read black voices for the first time was powerful. On the front page of the new paper the editors wrote: "We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us." Inside were stories about slavery, lynchings, and social justice. The paper also covered international news of special interest to the community, such as events in Haiti and Sierra Leone. In addition, the paper featured biographies of black men and women, schools, jobs, and housing opportunities. It also listed weddings, births, and deaths.<br /><br />For two years Freedom's Journal served a community of 300,000 African Americans in the North. It was sent to 11 states and the District of Columbia, as well as to Haiti, Europe, and Canada. It was followed by no less than 24 other black newspapers in the years before the Civil War. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.717354 lon=-74.006065 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/freedom-s_journal.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/freedom-s_journal/images/820/Reverend_Samuel_E_Cornish_820.jpg image_then_title=Rev. Samuel Cornish image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?485485">© Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/Art Resource</a> image_then_caption= Samuel E. Cornish, a preacher (pictured), and John Brown Russwurm, a scholar, founded the nation’s first black newspaper in 1827. They called it Freedom's Journal. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/freedom-s_journal/images/820/25_freedomsjournal_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of 236 Church St., former offices of Freedom's Journal image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The offices for Freedom’s Journal moved around. This location is 236 Church Street. Another office was located at 152 Church Street a few blocks farther downtown. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Freetown BASENAME: freetown STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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. East Hampton residents, according to 1790 census takers, included approximately 1,299 whites, 99 slaves, and 99 people classified as "all other free people." Following the passage of the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1799 in New York State, John Lyon Gardiner and other wealthy local slave-owners settled newly freed slaves in Freetown. Some of these households bore the last names of their former owners in subsequent census records. Rufus Right, Cyrus Hedges, William Gardiner, and Luce Gardiner were early African American residents of Freetown.<br /><br />Throughout the 19th century, the African Americans living in Freetown worked as laborers and skilled tradespeople on farms, at sea, and in the homes of local white families. There were few opportunities to own or improve property so most African Americans sought wage labor. As whaling and related industries became increasingly vital, Long Island played an important role in offering opportunities to local African Americans. Community life also focused on family and faith. Many attended church with white and Native American families at St. Mathew's Chapel on Three Mile Harbor Road.<br /><br />Freetown continued to expand its diversity well into the 20th century. In the late 19th century, Arthur Benson, a wealthy businessman, offered cash and deeds to small plots in Freetown to Montauk Indians seeking rights to tribal lands in Indian Fields. The Great Migration in the late 20th century brought new African American families to Freetown. Today, the community increasingly has been absorbed by the neighborhoods surrounding it. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.976203 lon=-72.181094 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/freetown.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/mcgovern_freetown.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/mcgovern_freetown.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/freetown/images//820/freetownthen_820.jpg image_then_title=Chapel at Freetown image_then_source=Courtesy of the East Hampton Library, Long Island Collection image_then_caption=The African American residents of Freetown attended church with whites and Native Americans at the St. Mathew's Chapel on Three Mile Harbor Road. The building was relocated in the twentieth century. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/freetown/images//820/freetowncurrent_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Freetown, Town of East Hampton image_now_source=<a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ANTHRO/cfpa/cfpa_about.html" target="_blank">Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University</a> image_now_caption=Freetown is remembered as a location where freed slaves settled in the 18th and 19th centuries. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Gideon and the Great Dock BASENAME: the_gideon_and_the_great_dock STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: On an August day in 1664, the Dutch ship Gideon reached the Great Dock in New Amsterdam. Its long journey had begun in the Netherlands, where it took on board wrist and ankle shackles, and other supplies for its mission. Its first stop was Angola, Africa, where the captain was directed to “as quickly as possible, take on board as many slaves as he can conveniently transport,” along with copper and elephant tusks. The ship then crossed the ocean to the Caribbean, where it delivered slaves and the other “cargo,” before proceeding to New Amsterdam. It arrived at the Great Dock with 291 Africans. To date, this was the largest shipment of enslaved men, women, and children to the Dutch colony. The Dutch West India Company relied on Africans to build homes, fortifications, and even the Great Dock. It was Africans who unloaded the Gideon. <br /><br />Before the Gideon could be loaded again, British warships arrived. Without a single shot being fired, New Amsterdam became New York, and about 150 Dutch soldiers marched onto the Gideon to sail home. <br /><br />The English took possession of a town with a population of about 1,500 whites, 300 slaves, and 75 freedmen. The largest slave owner was the Dutch West India Company, which had granted some of the older Africans a kind of half-freedom and plots of land. The Land of the Blacks was a group of 8-to-12-acre farms north of the town. The English were quick to question the freedom of these blacks and their landholdings. As difficult as life was for the Africans under the Dutch, it was about to get harsher. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.703121 lon=-74.013008 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/the_gideon_and_the_great_dock.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_gideon_and_the_great_dock/images/820/MAAP_GreatDock_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=The Castello Plan, New Amsterdam in 1660 image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=The Gideon, carrying 291 enslaved Africans, arrived at the Great Dock in 1664. Africans did most of the labor needed by the Dutch West India Company in New Amsterdam. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_gideon_and_the_great_dock/images/820/2_greatdockshipgideon_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of where the Great Dock once was image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=In 1659, when Africans built the Great Dock, Pearl Street was the water’s edge. The dock was located between today’s Whitehall Street and Broad Street, which was a canal. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Harlem BASENAME: harlem STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Harlem has been a black community for over 100 years. In that time it has been called the “Capital of Black America,” the “Negro Culture Capital of the World,” and even the “Promised Land.”<br /><br />Settlement of Harlem dates back to Dutch times when Africans cleared the land as well as the road that led to it from New Amsterdam, which lay 9 miles away. A bit later, the neighborhood was Irish, Jewish, and Italian. It was not until overbuilding caused vacancies that blacks were allowed to move in. That was in 1904, when a black real-estate agent named Philip A. Payton promised landlords that he could find renters if they would allow African Americans. The landlords agreed and several buildings were quickly filled. The white population began to flee, causing more vacancies and even more blacks to move in. <br /><br />Some of the new tenants, such as Madame C. J. Walker, were wealthy. Others were writers such as Langston Hughes or painters such as Jacob Lawrence. Over time, more and more residents were poor, part of the Great Migration from the South. During that time, thousands of blacks left their homes, friends, and relatives in the South and migrated North to the “Promised Land.” By the 1920s, there were more African Americans per square mile in Harlem than in any other place on Earth. The gathering of poets, dancers, musicians, and artists then became known as the Harlem Renaissance. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.808512 lon=-73.947237 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/harlem.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/marable_harlem.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/marable_harlem.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/harlem/images/820/MAAP_Harlem_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Langston Hughes with others overlooking St. Nicholas Avenue. image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1228869">Regina Andrews Photograph Collection/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/Photographs and Prints Division/ The New York Public Library </a> image_then_caption=Author Langston Hughes with (left to right) Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Rudolph Fisher, and Hubert T. Delaney. All were part of the Harlem Renaissance. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/harlem/images/820/MAAP_Harlem_Now_820.jpg image_now_title=Statue of Adam Clayton Powell image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Visitors to Harlem today can find information at a kiosk at 163 W. 125th Street, the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building. There you can also see a statue of Powell. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Harlem Children's Zone BASENAME: hcz STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>In the mid 1990s, author and community leader Geoffrey Canada conceived of a new vision for Harlem. After years of hard work with Harlem’s Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families, Canada felt that many children in poor communities were still slipping between the cracks. He decided to create a program that would uplift the entire neighborhood: the Harlem Children’s Zone.  Canada's program evolved into a unique organization that serves the children of Harlem with a comprehensive network of education, health, family, and housing programs. Today, the Harlem Community Zone serves a 100-block radius in the community, providing services to 13,000 children through its innovative programs.  <br /><br />Built in 2004, the $44 million Harlem Community Zone headquarters represents the collaboration of Canada and another leader in the African American community:  the renowned  African American architect, J. Max Bond Jr.  Inspired by the local artistry he encountered during a trip to Tunisia as a young man, Bond's architecture integrates allusions to African style in a modernist aesthetic. He has achieved international acclaim for his work on projects such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Change and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Bond also contributed to the World Trade Center Memorial and Columbia University’s Manhattanville project. In a time when black architects make up only 1.5 percent of the American Institute of Architects and black architectural firms receive 85 percent of their commissions from the state, Bond’s achievements are remarkable.<br /><br />The Harlem Children’s Zone is an excellent example of Bond’s modern aesthetic and belief in architecture’s role in the community.  His use of stylistic modernism underscores the Harlem Children’s Zone’s focus on community betterment. Bold colors, dynamic intersecting lines, and asymmetry offer a visual expression of uplift and change.  Yet, Bond’s principles of openness and approachability demonstrate that the Harlem Children’s Zone is an integral part of the community. The glass windows that predominate the center’s façade emphasize that the organization is engaged in a dialogue with its community. Likewise, the brick of the community center echoes the use of brick in the commercial buildings, residences, and churches of 125th Street.<br /><br />This architectural project successfully combines the visions of J. Max Bond Jr. and Geoffrey Canada. The collaboration has produced not only a cultural landmark, but perhaps more significantly, a safe space for Harlem’s children in need.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.806081 lon=-73.941063 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/hcz.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/harlem_childrens_zone/images//820/hcz_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Historic view of E 125th Street & Madison Avenue image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?715374F">New York Public Library</a> image_then_caption=Historic view of 125th Street and Madison Avenue, current home of the Harlem's Children's Zone. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/harlem_childrens_zone/images//820/hcz_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Harlem Children's Zone image_now_source=Harlem Children's Zone image_now_caption=Current view of Harlem Children's Zone. HCZ is a community outreach and education center. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Harlem Community Art Center BASENAME: harlemartcenter STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>The Harlem Community Art Center was created in November 1938. Its opening was attended by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who welcomed the community’s new hub for creativity.  During its brief life, the Harlem Community Art Center had a tremendous impact. Many of its students became artists who took pride in their culture and community. Paintings created by students at the Center often depicted scenes of Harlem; it was as if the students looked out a window and drew what they saw in the street.  <br /><br />The Center was a place for the Harlem community to receive education in the arts for free or little charge.  It was organized by the Works Progress Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and headed by Augusta Savage.  Children and adults clamored to be part of the wide variety of art classes taught by teachers of varying ethnicities. The students were diverse as well, ranging from established Harlem painters to maladjusted children from the New York psychiatric hospitals who benefitted from the Center's creative activities. <br /><br />Jacob Lawrence, the influential African American artist who depicts Harlem life in many of his paintings, attended programs at the Center and often taught classes. Lawrence also exhibited some of his work for fellow community members to view. The influence of the Center and its blending of art and the Harlem community can be seen in works like the "The Photographer,” painted by Lawrence in 1942. In this painting, Lawrence depicts a black man photographing a wealthy black family in the middle of a crowded street in Harlem. This scene demonstrated that art was no longer a hobby of the rich and famous, but an activity of the everyday man, uniting people of every race and social status.<br /><br />Although the Harlem Community Art Center only lasted for 16 short months, its mission inspired a new organization called the Harlem Arts Alliance.  Located in the same building that housed the Harlem Community Art Center on 290 Lenox Avenue, the Harlem Arts Alliance continues to preserve and promote multi-ethnic and multi-cultural artists and art organizations in Harlem and surrounding communities.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.807376 lon=-73.945494 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/harlemartcenter.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/harlem_art_center/images//820/harlemarts_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Student Sculptor at Work image_then_source=<a href="http://newdeal.feri.org//library/j42.htm">National Archives and Records Adminstration </a> image_then_caption=The Harlem Community Art Center was a place where African American children from the neighborhood came to enjoy and create art. This image shows a student sculptor at the Center. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/harlem_art_center/images/820/Harlemarts_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current View of Harlem Community Art Center image_now_source=Columbia University image_now_caption=The Harlem Community Art Center is no longer in existence. The Harlem Arts Alliance is now housed on the 2nd floor of the same building. This is the current view of its location. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Harlem Hellfighters BASENAME: 369th_armory STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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. They cheered and clapped as the 369th Infantry Regiment marched to the new musical rhythm that was sweeping Europe and America: jazz. The 369th referred to themselves as the “men of bronze,” but became better known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” because of their ferocity in battle. An all-black military unit, the regiment was under the command of mostly white officers. New York’s Union League, led by Col. William Hayward, organized the “Colored Regiments” of the Civil War.<br /><br />The Harlem Hellfighters fought the Germans at the battles of Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thiery. They distinguished themselves in combat, serving more than 6 months on the front lines while suffering more than 1400 casualties. It was the first American unit to be awarded France’s highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre. One hundred and seventy of its men were awarded individual medals, including two who personally won the Croix de Guerre.<br /><br />World War I brought about a great many changes that had a lasting impact on America, such as initiating the great migration of blacks from the South to the North. This was also the time of the assimilation of black music and culture into mainstream American culture known as the Harlem Renaissance. Approximately 380,000 blacks served in World War I, and many lost their lives. However, the sacrifices they made, like the sacrifices they made in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, did not give African Americans the freedom to participate fully in a free democratic society. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.817197 lon=-73.934513 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/369th_armory.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_369th_armory.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_369th_armory.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/369th_armory/images/820/MAAP_369Armory_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=369th Armory image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1168427">Military Photograph Collection/The New York Public Library</a> image_then_caption=The 369th Regiment, or the “Harlem Hellfighters,” was the first African American regiment to fight in World War I. Their bravery in France won them that nation’s highest honor. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/369th_armory/images/820/45_ABG1365_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of 369th Armory image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The 369th Regiment Armory is located at One West 142nd Street. Across from the armory is a memorial to the Harlem Hellfighters. The black granite obelisk is a replica of one in France. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Harriet Tubman BASENAME: harriet_tubman STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Harriet Tubman, or “Moses” as some called her, was worth $40,000 to anyone who could capture her and return her south. It was a huge reward, but southern slave owners figured that she had stolen property worth at least $300,000. What did she steal? Some 300 enslaved men, women, and children, taking them on the Underground Railroad to freedom. <br /><br />Harriet Tubman was born around 1822, the property of a planter in Maryland. As a child she worked in his house but was soon sent out to do backbreaking fieldwork. After three of her sisters were sold, it was rumored that she might be sold to the cotton fields farther south, too. She knew she had to flee or she would never see her family again; in 1849 she made her escape alone. As a self-emancipated woman, Harriet Tubman then did what few others dared to do. She went back south—19 times, for her sisters, brothers, their children, friends, neighbors, and in one daring trip, her 70-year-old parents.<br /><br />A master of disguises who knew how to find her way in the woods without leaving tracks, she outsmarted the slave catchers and their dogs every time. As she told Frederick Douglass, she “never lost a single passenger.” Her route took her through New York City, a “train depot” of the Underground Railroad.  She and her passengers were hidden in local churches, homes, and offices and then sent on to Canada and freedom. Not even the Civil War stopped Harriet Tubman’s efforts. She joined the Union cause as a nurse and a spy. After the abolition of slavery, Tubman kept working for freedom, justice, and equality until she died in 1913. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.698523 lon=-73.984803 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/harriet_tubman.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/harriet_tubman/images/820/MAAP_HarrietTubman_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Harriet Tubman; "The Moses of her people" image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1223622">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/General Research and Reference Division/The New York Public Library </a> image_then_caption=Harriet Tubman was one of the greatest conductors on the Underground Railroad. After emancipating herself, she returned south 19 times to help as many as 300 others gain their freedom. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/harriet_tubman/images/820/36_ABG7274_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of 143 Nassau Street, once site where Tubman would bring people fleeing on the underground railroad. image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Harriet Tubman often stopped at the New York Anti-Slavery offices such as the one at 143 Nassau Street. There she and her passengers could get train or boat tickets to Canada and freedom. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Hofstra University BASENAME: hofstra STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to several Long Island audiences in 1965, but on June 13th his commencement speech at Hofstra University stirred up a wide variety of community sentiments. Students, family, faculty and others enthusiastically gathered to hear King, who first went to college at age 15. His visit, however, evoked protests from others, including letters to Hofstra President, Clifford Lord, about King's supposed communist leanings. Hofstra's Public Safety Office, Nassau County Police and the Secret Service were all present at the event.</p><p>King expressed his appreciation for the honorary degree awarded by Hofstra and cited the value of such "moral support."  He then gave an impassioned speech for the need to end social injustice, poverty, and war. </p><p>Hofstra's University Archives maintains the history of this day and its surrounding events. Trustee Emeritus Bernard Fixler and Mrs. Lucy Wachtel, wife of King's longtime attorney, and Hofstra professor of political science Harry Wachtel helped make this possible through the donation of Harry Wachtel's Papers to Hofstra's Department of Special Collections. This collection of papers includes information about Supreme Court cases, organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights movement, and Wachtel's trip with King and his supporters to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. </p><p>Students and community continue to remain impacted by King's visit. </p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.714606 lon=-73.600458 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/hofstra.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/king_hofstra.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/king_hofstra.mov image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/hofstra/images/820/hofstra_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Martin Luther King, Jr. at Hofstra University image_then_source=Courtesy of Hofstra's Department of Special Collections - University Archives. image_then_caption=Martin Luther King, Jr. is pictured with Hofstra University President Clifford Lord and members of the Secret Service. King's participation in the commencement ceremony caused mixed reaction from local community members. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/hofstra/images/820/Hofstra_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Hofstra University North Campus image_now_source=Courtesy of Hofstra's Department of Special Collections - University Archives. image_now_caption=Students and community members still draw upon Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words and life through materials archived on campus. Hofstra University celebrates it 75th anniversary in 2010. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Hughson's Tavern BASENAME: hughson-s_tavern STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: In the spring of 1741, all eyes were on a tavern at the corner of Liberty and Trinity Streets. The tavern was on the waterfront then, and it was a meeting place for free and enslaved blacks as well as poor whites. It was illegal in those days for more than three slaves to meet unless they were working.<br /><br />Trouble began after a burglary. The man charged with the crime was a slave called Caesar. When he was arrested at Hughson’s Tavern, investigators thought that John Hughson and his wife Sarah (who were white) were trading in stolen goods. Mary Burton, Hughson’s 16-year-old servant, was brought in for questioning. The investigators offered her a choice: She could tell all that she “knew” and gain freedom from being a servant, or go to prison. She chose the first option, and the Hughsons were quickly arrested. Then fires broke out—once there were four in one day. New Yorkers panicked, fearing the worst—another slave uprising. Again investigators turned to Mary Burton, and she again told them what they wanted to hear.<br /><br />Mary claimed that Hughson’s Tavern was a meeting place for blacks and whites plotting to burn the city, murder its inhabitants, and seize power. The slaves would become masters, she said, and Caesar, the thief, would become governor. Her story was incredible, but it was believed. In the hysteria of “The Great Negro Plot” almost half of the adult black male population was arrested and brought to trial. In the end, 17 blacks were hanged, as well as the Hughsons and 2 other whites. Thirteen Africans were burned at the stake, and 70 enslaved blacks were shipped to the Caribbean to be resold. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.709702 lon=-74.011673 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/hughson-s_tavern.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_hughson-s_tavern.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_hughson-s_tavern.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/hughson-s_tavern/images/820/MAAP_HughsonsTavern_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Hughson’s Tavern image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=Hughson’s Tavern was on the waterfront in 1741. Its doors were open to blacks and poor whites, making it suspect during “The Great Negro Plot” of 1741. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/hughson-s_tavern/images/820/11_hughsonstavern_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of where Hughson's Tavern once stood image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Today, the site of Hughson’s Tavern at the corner of Liberty and Trinity Streets is far from the waterfront. What was once the location of docks for ships is now the site of the former World Trade Center. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: James McCune Smith Pharmacy BASENAME: james_mccune_smith_pharmacy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: In 1824, the aged Revolutionary War hero General Lafayette returned to America for a tour of the nation he had helped to forge. While in New York he asked to visit the African Free School. James McCune Smith was chosen to write and deliver the welcoming address. Smith was 11 years old. <br /><br />Smith was a brilliant student who wanted to become a doctor. But there were no licensed black doctors in America then, so he was apprenticed to a blacksmith instead. As Smith worked the blacksmith’s bellows with one hand, he held a Latin grammar in the other and continued to study. But when he applied to Columbia College (called Kings College then) he was turned down. So instead he went to one of the world’s top medical schools in Great Britain. In five years he earned three degrees and graduated at the top of his class.<br /><br />Upon his return to New York he opened a pharmacy at 93 West Broadway in 1837. Here he served both white and black patients in the front of the store. In the back, he met with fellow activists and conspired to end slavery in the South, to win the vote for blacks in New York, and to educate black youth. Together with abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Gerrit Smith, and John Brown, he helped found the Radical Abolitionist Party. As the son of a self-emancipated mother, his pharmacy was a place where many escaping slaves found help. James McCune Smith worked for economic and social justice until his death in 1865, just a few weeks after passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.  ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.715477 lon=-74.009239 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/james_mccune_smith_pharmacy.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/james_mccune_smith_pharmacy/images/820/Dr_James_McCune_Smith_820.jpg image_then_title=Engraving of James McCune Smith image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1229418">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division/The New York Public Library </a> image_then_caption=Dr. James McCune Smith was the first licensed African American doctor in the country. This portrait was created by Patrick Reason, a friend and fellow student at the African Free School. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/james_mccune_smith_pharmacy/images/820/32_jamesmccunesmith_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of James McCune Smith Pharmacy site image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The pharmacy of Dr. McCune Smith was located at 93 West Broadway. Many of the leading abolitionists and activists of the time met in his library in a back room. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: John Street Church BASENAME: john_street_church STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: At the opening of the John Street Methodist Church, the priest addressed "those in the gallery," welcoming the African Americans. The segregated black worshipers could cook the food, clean the homes, and care for the children of the white worshipers, but they could not pray together with them. In other churches, the segregation was far worse. Some churches had “hidden galleries,” small closed rooms out of sight. Other churches had “negro pews” in corners or over stairways. Black parishioners could not vote or preach, but they could offer their services in the form of labor.<br /><br />At the John Street Church, African Peter Williams was a sexton. He probably dug the graves, swept the church, and kept up the grounds. James Varick was a deacon, a church officer who probably helped the priest give communion to the black worshipers—only after the whites had received communion. <br /><br />Williams and Varick had attended the church since it was founded in 1766. This was a time of change. During the Revolution, British soldiers occupied the city.  After that, General George Washington came to reclaim the city and the slaves that had fled to the British there. But the church’s practice of segregation remained the same. Williams, Varick, and other black worshipers began to hold separate meetings. Then the group decided to form a separate church. In October of 1800, the African Methodist Episcopal Church at the corner of Church and Leonard Streets was dedicated. It would become an enduring place of worship and struggle. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.709232 lon=-74.008041 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/john_street_church.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_john_street_church.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_john_street_church.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/john_street_church/images/820/MAAP_JohnStChurch_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Peter Williams, c.1810 (oil on canvas) image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=The John Street Church welcomed Peter Williams and other African worshipers, but blacks and whites were segregated. In the early 1800s, a group separated to form the first black church in the state. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/john_street_church/images/820/14_johnstreetmethodist_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view: the site of John Street Methodist Church image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Today the John Street Church is still located at 44 John Street. It includes the Wesley Chapel Museum, which tells the story of the “The Oldest Methodist Congregation in America.” ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Joseph Lloyd Manor BASENAME: joseph_lloyd_manor STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>Granted to James Lloyd I in 1685, Lloyd Manor encompassed approximately 3,000 acres of land on the north shore of Long Island. The Manor supplied the Boston-based merchant family with cider, cordwood, and clay among other inventory. It wasn't until 1711 that the first Lloyd, Henry, took up residence. That same year Henry Lloyd recorded the birth of a slave named Jupiter Hammon on Lloyd Neck. </p><p>Raised and educated with the Lloyd children, Hammon is the second known published American author of African descent. Seven pieces of his poetry and prose survive. Hammon's writings were published as broadsheets, and may have also been delivered as speeches. His work addressed both black and white audiences about the injustices of slavery, and was rooted in his Christian faith. Hammon, however, was not the only person enslaved on Lloyd Neck. Seasonal labor needs were great and the family used both free wage laborers and enslaved people to meet those needs.</p><p>When Henry Lloyd died he divided the Manor between his four sons. Joseph Lloyd, the only son to remain on Lloyd Neck, also inherited Jupiter Hammon. Hammon and Lloyd remained on the Neck until forced off by British troops. Joseph left for Hartford, Connecticut taking Jupiter with him. In 1780, Joseph Lloyd took his own life and willed Jupiter to his nephew, since he had no children of his own. Jupiter was brought back to the Neck, and census records document the Lloyds' possession of 14 other slaves on Lloyd Neck by 1790. Recent archaeological research seeks information about the others enslaved by the Lloyd family as little is known of their day-to-day lives.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.914956 lon=-73.476884 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/joseph_lloyd_manor.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/coplin_joseph_lloyd_manor.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/coplin_joseph_lloyd_manor.mov image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/joseph_lloyd_manor/images//820/lloyd_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Joseph Lloyd Manor in 1910 image_then_source=Courtesy of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities.   image_then_caption=This 1910 image shows some of the alterations to the house made by subsequent owners, particularly evident in the roofline. The Manor served as a plantation and in 1790 the census recorded 10 people as slaves including an elderly Jupiter Hammon. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/joseph_lloyd_manor/images//820/lloyd_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Joseph Lloyd Manor today image_now_source=Courtesy of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities.  image_now_caption=Joseph Lloyd Manor is owned and maintained by the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities. Home to Jupiter Hammon, the second known published American author of African decent, the house is open to the public. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Lakeville BASENAME: lakeville STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>Manhasset, a hamlet in the Town of North Hempstead, had a fairly large, steadfast African American settlement in the early 19th century. This community was unique due to its size and composition. The population was colonial in origin, comprised of people who were both born into slavery and "born free." By the third quarter of the 18th century, free African Americans had established a community along Valley Road near Lake Success that was known variably as Success, Lakeville at Success, and Valley Road. Approximately 150 people were listed as residents of the community on the 1790 Federal Census.</p><p>The Lakeville AME Zion Church was organized in 1821 and served as the center of the community. The congregation first met in the Little Neck home of Moses Coss. This continued after he moved to the Lakeville community a few years later. A building was constructed in 1832 on land purchased from Reverend George Treadwell and the congregation grew to 35 people.</p><p>By the 19th century, more than 30 buildings lined both sides of Valley Road, including houses, shops, and the church. The community included African Americans, Matinecock Indians, and people of mixed ancestry. Data drawn from the 1850 Federal Census indicates that many Lakeville residents were employed on the large estates of the North Shore. </p><p>Descendants of those early settlers are still connected to the area and residents have fought to preserve the Lakeville settlement. Now known as the Valley Road Historic District, the Lakeville AME Zion church, a cemetery, and several historic homes, located on the west side of Valley Road, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. </p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.77519 lon=-73.7032 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/lakeville.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/day_lakeville.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/day_lakeville.mov image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/lakeville/images//820/lakeville_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Lakeville AME Zion Church image_then_source=<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria">Courtesy of NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Valley Road Historic District, Manhasset, Nassau County</span> image_then_caption=This image was taken in 1976 as part of the nomination for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It includes the Lakeville AME church looking northwest. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/lakeville/images//820/lakeville_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Lakeville community, Manhasset image_now_source=<a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ANTHRO/cfpa/cfpa_about.html" target="_blank">Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University</a> image_now_caption=The Valley Road Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserves African American history and helps maintain the community connection to this landscape. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Land of the Blacks BASENAME: the_land_of_the_blacks STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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. The time was 1643, and the area would soon be called the Land of the Blacks. <br /><br />The black settlement began during the Dutch wars with neighboring Indians. When raids began, the white settlers fled to the safety of New Amsterdam. Director-General Willem Kieft decided to replace the white settlers with black ones, as a buffer for the community. The first land grants were given to members of the black militia such as Domingo Anthony and “Captain of the Blacks” Manuel Trumpeter, or their widows, such as Catalina Anthony. The grants were sizeable, from eight to twelve acres each, enough land for a garden, crops, and pasture for their cattle, goats, and sheep. Orchards were planted and included trees of apples, peaches, plums, and cherries.  The homes and barns were mostly wooden with roofs of thatch or board.  <br /><br />Many of those who gained land grants were elders who had won a status we know as half-freedom, but their children remained enslaved. Nevertheless, the farms were passed down through the generations, creating a strong black community that petitioned for their rights, married, baptized their children and, at least a century before the Underground Railroad, harbored runaways. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.730251 lon=-74.001022 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/the_land_of_the_blacks.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_land_of_the_blacks/images/820/MAAP_LandBlacks_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Land of the Blacks image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=The Land of the Blacks included parts of Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo, and Greenwich Village. Washington Square Park (pictured) includes land once owned by five Africans. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_land_of_the_blacks/images/820/6_landofblacks_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Minetta Lane, once central to the Land of the Blacks image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Minetta Lane is a remnant of a road, later called the Negroes’ Causeway, that ran alongside Minetta Creek and connected some of the African farms with New Amsterdam. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Langston Hughes BASENAME: langston_hughes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: One of the leading voices in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Langston Hughes focused his writing on the realistic plight of black people. He authored more than 50 literary works covering all genres: poetry, fiction, autobiography, children’s books, opera, and drama.<br /><br />In his early years, Hughes was greatly influenced by W. E. B. Dubois and by his grandmother’s stories about his grandfather, who took part in John Brown's raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859 to arm the slaves.<br /><br />Hughes attended Columbia University, dropping out in the early 1920s to "see the world." After returning to the United States, he won a scholarship to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (graduating in 1929), where he was considered one of the most promising young poets of his generation.<br /><br />A friend of Ernest Hemingway, Hughes continued to travel widely and made Harlem his permanent home in 1942.<br /><br />Hughes, unlike many of the Harlem Renaissance writers, was able to support himself financially through his writing. His works included "Simple Speaks His Mind," featuring the witty and ironic street-smart Harlemite who commented on the everyday life of black people. His well-known poems such as "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "The Weary Blues," and "Harlem" were meant to be read aloud; because of his use of rhythmical language, the poems were frequently set to music and actively engaged the audience. He had additional success on Broadway, where his 1935 play "The Mulatto" became a hit. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.807441 lon=-73.940667 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/langston_hughes.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jones_langston_hughes.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jones_langston_hughes.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/langston_hughes/images/820/MAAP_LangstonHughes_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Langston Hughes June 1958 on the steps in front of his house in Harlem. image_then_source=© Robert W. Kelley/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images image_then_caption=Langston Hughes wrote poems, plays, operas, short stories, children’s books, and more. And when he wasn’t writing, he lectured. Hughes was a major force behind the Harlem Renaissance. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/langston_hughes/images/820/42_langstonhughes_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Langston Hughes' former home image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Langston Hughes’s home at 20 East 127th Street is a New York City landmark, and the street has been renamed “Langston Hughes Place” in his honor. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Latting's Hundred BASENAME: lattings STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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. Among the best documented African American families of the time, Rachel, her son Peter, niece Sarah and nephew Elijah all lived and worked in this house from 1739 to 1792. Surviving records and artifacts speak of their African origins and daily lives.  In the years to follow, pursuant to the New York State Manumission Act of 1799, many local African Americans came to this same house to obtain "Freedom Papers." <br /><br />Rachel, born in 1713, managed both house and inn for the Lewis family, owners of Latting's Hundred. Her son Peter grew up with the Lewis children and served as butler. He was pressed into the British Army as a teamster with Gen. Sir William Erskine's Brigade during the Revolutionary War. Elijah, a musician at the inn, was wounded while defending the home next door against British soldiers. He became a local celebrity and the story of the man with the "bulletproof head" is still retold. <br /><br />Artifacts bundled together and pressed between sill and floor of the home were found during a restoration and date to this period. The contents may represent Rachel's heritage as the bundle reflects African religious practices.<br /><br />Prominent politician and merchant Samuel Fleet lived here in the early Nineteenth Century. His public duties included the review of petitions to emancipate adult bondservants. He signed seventy percent of the manumissions issued to African Americans in the Town of Huntington, Long Island.  ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.87475 lon=-73.41275 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/lattings.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/lattings/images//820/lattings_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Symbolic objects bundle image_then_source=Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University image_then_caption=This bundle of symbolic objects was concealed in the cellar stairwell at Latting's Hundred. African Americans honoring the religious traditions of their families placed objects where they lived and worked. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/lattings/images/820/lattings_now_820.jpg image_now_title=View of Latting's Hundred image_now_source=Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University image_now_caption=The old wing long served as a general store and post office while the main house as an inn and family home. A succession of African Americans lived and worked here from 1739 until farming ceased in 1953. Today it is a private residence. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Lewis H. Latimer BASENAME: lewis_latimer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Lewis Latimer was born free in 1848; his parents George and Rebecca Latimer made sure of that. Before he was born, they fled enslavement for freedom in Massachusetts. Soon, however, George Latimer’s owner arrived and had him arrested. Immediately 300 blacks, along with white abolitionists, surrounded the courthouse in protest. In the end George Latimer was free, as his children would be.<br /><br />Young Lewis was able to go to school in Boston. He loved to read and draw, and he was determined to do well. When he was 16, Civil War broke out, and Latimer joined the Navy to fight for the Union. After the war, Latimer taught himself mechanical drawing and did the patent drawings for Alexander Bell’s telephone. Latimer knew he could invent things, too. He went on to invent a longer-lasting light bulb, a toilet that worked on moving trains, an air cleaner used in hospitals, and an improved safety elevator, among other things. As an expert in electricity, he supervised the construction of lighting systems for New York and many other cities.<br /><br />Latimer moved to New York in 1903 and bought a home in Flushing, Queens, where his two daughters grew up. His house was filled with culture. A true “Renaissance  man,” Latimer painted; wrote poems, plays, and music; and played the flute for friends and family. And until his death in 1928, he never stopped inventing. Today the Lewis H. Latimer House is a museum filled with Latimer’s work and a member of the Historic House Trust. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.785722 lon=-73.831765 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/lewis_latimer.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/lewis_latimer/images/820/MAAP_LewisLatimer_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Lewis Latimer photograph image_then_source=Queens Borough Library, Long Island Division. Latimer Family Papers. image_then_caption=Lewis H. Latimer was a brilliant inventor especially known for his work in electricity. Before Latimer, a light bulb might last only a day or two. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/lewis_latimer/images/820/52_ABG7062_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Lewis H. Latimer House Museum image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The Lewis H. Latimer House Museum is located at 34-41 137th Street in Flushing, Queens, and is open by appointment. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Louis Armstrong BASENAME: louis_armstrong STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: The world’s most famous jazz musician lived in modest Corona, Queens. Louis Armstrong was happy to get away from the fame and fans to return to his wife Lucille and his home. Upon returning, he might go outside and play a few notes on his famous cornet. This was a signal to the neighborhood kids that “Pops” was home. They would flock to his house and be taken for ice cream or enjoy a chat on the stoop. The Armstrongs were wealthy enough to live anywhere, but this was where they were happiest.<br /><br />Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, in the poorest section of New Orleans. He began to play the cornet at a young age. His passion for music and his talent combined to make him one of the greatest musicians of the age. He not only changed the music the entire world listened to, he also appeared in over 30 movies and wrote two wonderful autobiographies. And he was not shy about speaking out for civil rights. “I won’t play where I can’t stay,” he said. His wife Lucille also broke barriers. She was the first dark-skinned African American to dance professionally at the famed Cotton Club in Harlem. <br /><br />Louis Armstrong died in 1971 and his wife, 12 years later. In her will, Lucille left the house to the City of New York to be made into a museum. A tour of the house today is like visiting the couple. You will even hear their voices as you enter the dining room or the den, because Louis recorded some of their conversations. On summer evenings the museum offers live concerts in the garden, just as the Armstrongs did. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.754915 lon=-73.861557 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/louis_armstrong.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/louis_armstrong/images/820/MAAP_LouisArmstrong_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Photo of Louis Armstrong image_then_source=© AP Photo image_then_caption=Louis Armstrong toured the globe playing his cornet for fans ranging from royalty to neighborhood kids. Millions knew him as “Ambassador Satch” or simply “Satchmo.” image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/louis_armstrong/images/820/51_ABG6876_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Louis & Lucille Armstong's home image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The home of Louis and Lucille Armstrong located at 34-56 107th Street in Queens is a National Historic Landmark and museum. A tour of the home is like visiting the Armstrongs. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Manhattan Company BASENAME: the_manhattan_company STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: The Manhattan Company was formed to bring fresh water to New Yorkers. Or at least that was its stated purpose. What the founders really wanted to do was to open a bank. In the end they did both. The Bank of the Manhattan Company, founded in 1799, was a huge success. Today it is known as JP Morgan Chase. The company’s mission to deliver fresh water to New Yorkers was not as successful, however. <br /><br />The city in 1800 reached as far north as Chambers Street. Above that were widely spaced homes and farms along dirt roads. There were also slaughterhouses and places where animal hides were tanned—both very smelly businesses, located near what was once a supply of good fresh water called the Collect Pond. <br /><br />The plan was to build a waterworks on Reade Street near the pond and pump the water around the city through a network of log pipes. It was a big job. About 25 miles of pipe had to be laid. The streets were paved with heavy cobblestones, which had to be torn up. Then a deep trench was dug and the hollowed pine logs -- each 13 feet long and 13 inches in diameter -- were laid in the trench and pounded together. Sand and earth were placed back in the trench, and any leftover dirt was carted away. <br /><br />The laborers made one dollar a day, but if the worker was enslaved, his or her earnings went to the owner. At that time enslaved men and women were sometimes sent to the Slave Market at the end of Wall Street to hire themselves out. There were many free Africans in the city, too, but it was harder for them to get good-paying jobs. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.7066 lon=-74.009827 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/the_manhattan_company.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_manhattan_company/images/820/MAAP_TheManhattanCo_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Laying of the Water Pipes image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=Around 1801 workers lay log water pipes along Broad Street as officials from the Manhattan Company look on. The workers laid 25 miles of pipe in the city’s first water system. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_manhattan_company/images/820/7_manhattancompany_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of a downtown area once supplied with water by the Manhattan Company image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The Manhattan Company’s water system, which never worked very well, was replaced in 1842 when fresh drinking water began to flow into the city from Croton. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Marcus Garvey BASENAME: marcus_garvey STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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.” <br /><br />He left school at sixteen and went to work as an apprentice printer, organizing the printing workers in Kingston, Jamaica.<br /><br />In 1917, he came to America and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), whose major goal was to create a strong Negro Nation in Africa. By 1920, the UNIA claimed more than 1 million members. In August of that year, their International Convention was held in New York City, where 25,000 people gathered to hear Garvey speak.<br /><br />In 1923, Garvey was charged with and found guilty of using the mail service to defraud in connection with his fundraising to buy ships for the return to Africa. While imprisoned he wrote his famous “First Message to the Negroes of the World from Atlanta Prison,” where he said: “Look to me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for liberty, freedom and life.”<br /><br />Garvey died in 1940 in London, England. He was named Jamaica’s first national hero and buried in the National Heroes Park in Jamaica. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.804477 lon=-73.941616 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/marcus_garvey.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_marcus_garvey.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_marcus_garvey.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/marcus_garvey/images/820/MAAP_MarcusGarvey_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Marcus Garvey in full uniform image_then_source=© Hulton Archive/Getty Images image_then_caption=A black nationalist, Marcus Garvey immigrated to Harlem in 1916. There he established Liberty Hall as headquarters for a movement that would grow to almost 2 million members. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/marcus_garvey/images/820/41_marcusgarvey_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Marcus Garvey Memorial Park image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The Marcus Garvey Memorial Park interrupts Fifth Avenue between 120th and 124th Streets. Its 70-foot hill offers a view of the site of Garvey’s Liberty Hall on West 138th Street. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Minton's Playhouse BASENAME: mintons STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>Henry Minton, a tenor saxophonist and the first black delegate to Local 802 of the musicians’ union, opened Minton’s Playhouse in 1938. Located on 118th street at Saint Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, adjacent to the Hotel Cecil, the Playhouse was a frequent temporary residence of musicians passing through New York.  In 1940, Minton hired big band musician Teddy Hill to organize the music policy for his club and help improve a lagging business. Hill quickly made Kenny Clarke the band leader, giving him full artistic license. Clarke in turn brought trumpeter Joe Guy, bassist Nick Fenton, and local pianist at the time Thelonius Monk into the group. It was then that Minton’s history as the playground of New York jazz and the birthplace of bebop began.<br /><br />Because of Minton’s connections to the union, musicians were able to experiment freely at the club without fear of being fined by the union delegate for playing without pay. Thus, musicians from nearby big band theaters like the Apollo and the Paramount made Minton’s their after hours hotspot (the club was open until 4am), where musical experimentation and southern-style food was in abundance.  Minton’s was particularly famous for its Monday night gatherings—the official off-work day for professional musicians. It was this communal environment that encouraged the cross-fertilization of ideas that would breed bebop. The term, which both Thelonius Monk and Dizzy Gillespie claim to have coined, referred to the bebop's unusual stop and start form, which flourished during World War II.  <br /><br />Minton’s continued to be a gravitational center of American Jazz post-war, as Europeans flocked to the site to visit a creative shrine. But as jazz (and bebop in particular) became more mainstream, performances migrated to the whiter areas of the city, and travel to Minton’s dwindled.  In 1974, the club closed its doors. For the next 30 years, jazz enthusiasts and entrepreneurs alike attempted to reopen the legendary playhouse, but were unsuccessful. But on May 19, 2006 the club finally reopened—in its original location—under Earl Spain’s management. While the club continues to host Monday night jam sessions in honor of the playhouse’s glory days, the original spirit of Minton’s was truly one-of-a-kind.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.804564 lon=-73.952013 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/mintons.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/mintons/images//820/mintons_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Louis Armstrong image_then_source=Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division image_then_caption=Louis Armstrong, one of the many jazz greats to play at the legendary Minton's Playhouse. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/mintons/images//820/mintons_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Minton's Playhouse image_now_source=Columbia University image_now_caption=Current view of the historic jazz club. It is still in existence in the same location. The building is considered a historic landmark. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Mother AME Zion Church BASENAME: mother_ame_zion_church STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: In the late 1700s, the Methodists of the mostly white John Street Church welcomed Africans and their descendents, and many came to worship there. Peter Williams, born a slave, became a sexton and James Varick became a deacon of the church. In time, however, the worshipers in the Negro pews grew frustrated. They wanted to speak out against slavery and to worship as equals. Finally, in 1796, James Varick led a group of about 100 worshipers to an old rented building on Cross Street to worship separately. This congregation would found the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the first black church in the state.<br /><br />By 1800, the group moved into a small wooden building at the corner of Church and Leonard Streets. The church thrived, and by 1820, Mother Zion had a new brick building. That same year the leaders voted to leave the White Methodist Episcopal Church because it would not ordain black bishops. James Varick became the first Bishop of the new church. It was a time when more and more black New Yorkers were gaining their freedom. These newly free African Americans were determined to end slavery in the South and racism in the North. The AME Church played a big part in the activism of that time. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad and many who worshiped there, such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, became leaders and abolitionists.<br /><br />As African Americans moved uptown, so did the church. Today Mother AME Zion Church is located at 140-7 W. 137th Street in Harlem. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.714962 lon=-74.007935 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/mother_ame_zion_church.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/mother_ame_zion_church/images/820/MAAP_JamesVarick_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Illustration of James Varick image_then_source=©  Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=The first black church in the state was the Mother AME Zion Church located at 158 Church Street. James Varick was its first bishop. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/mother_ame_zion_church/images/820/44_motheramezion_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Mother A.M.E. Zion Church on 137th Street image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The present Mother AME Zion Church is located at 140-7 W. 137th Street. The building was designed by George W. Foster, Jr., one of the first black architects to be licensed in the U.S. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: New York City Draft Riots 1863 BASENAME: nyc_draft_riot STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>With the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil War began to be more about black freedom. Many New Yorkers were not happy about this—especially poor whites and immigrants. Newspapers of the time warned that great masses of former slaves would pour into northern cities looking for work. Then on July 11, the Conscription Act of 1863 took effect. The act made all male citizens between 20 and 35 and all unmarried men between 20 and 45 subject to military duty. However, anyone who could pay $300 could avoid service. Blacks were not considered citizens and were exempt. </p><p>The growing fear and anger turned to violence, and the worst riot in the history of the city began. The first targets were military and government buildings, but by afternoon the white mobs began to turn on blacks. A nine-year-old boy was attacked, and then the mob stormed the Colored Orphan Asylum, burning the great four-story building to the ground. The violence soon moved to the docks, where a predominantly Irish mob attacked more than 100 black longshoremen, killing several.  For five days, the battle raged across Manhattan from the Battery to the Upper East Side, until President Lincoln sent troops to the city to restore order. <br /><br />The cost of the riot was incredible. As many as 100 people were killed. More than 100 buildings were burned, and many more were damaged and looted. Many blacks fled Manhattan, and the riots drove a wedge between black and white workers that lasted through the civil rights movement of the 1960s.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.739486 lon=-73.981089 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/nyc_draft_riot.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/nyc_draft_riot/images/820/MAAP_DraftRiots_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=The riots in New York : conflict between the military and the rioters in First Avenue image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?809571">Mid-Manhattan Library/Picture Collection/ The New York Public Library</a> image_then_caption=During the Draft Riots of 1863, Union troops were called in to restore order. Here the rioters (pictured) battled Union forces along First Avenue, between 11th and 14th Streets. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/nyc_draft_riot/images/820/MAAP_1863DraftRiots_Now_820.jpg image_now_title=Gramercy Park today image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Today, Gramercy Park is a quiet place, but in 1863 it was a war zone. Union cavalry and artillery occupied the park, setting up two cannon at the northeast corner to face the rioters. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Pierre Toussaint BASENAME: pierre_toussaint STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: In 1996, Pope John Paul II bestowed the title of “Venerable” on Pierre Toussaint. Two years later, Pierre Toussaint Square was named for him. This man, who was brought to New York as a slave in 1787, may soon become the first Haitian saint.<br /><br />Toussaint was raised as a slave in the household of Jean Berard, a family of devout Catholics who taught him both reading and writing. When the family fled the revolution on their island, they brought Pierre and his sister Rosalie with them. Pierre was immediately apprenticed to a hairdresser, and went on to become one of the best in the city. At that time, wealthy women would spend $1000 a year on their hairdos, so Toussaint was able to make very good money. But what he did with his money is more extraordinary.<br /><br />When his master died, Toussaint supported his mistress. He bought his sister’s freedom rather than his own, so that she could marry and bear free children. He bought his future wife’s freedom and helped many other slaves to buy theirs. He donated money to his beloved Church, to ministers and nuns, to orphans white and black, and to countless other causes. Not only did he donate money, but he also visited the sick and nursed them during yellow fever epidemics when no one else dared to. <br /><br />Upon his death in 1853, the city mourned him, the papers eulogized him, and the great Revolutionary leader General Philip Schuyler said of him, “I have known Christians who were not gentlemen or gentlemen who were not Christians--but one man I know who is both--and that man is Black.” ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.723679 lon=-73.995552 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/pierre_toussaint.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/desir_pierre_toussaint_2.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/desir_pierre_toussaint_2.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/pierre_toussaint/images/820/MAAP_PierreToussaint_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Pierre Toussaint (1778-1853) c.1825 image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=When Pierre Toussaint was brought to New York from Haiti, he was enslaved. And yet his accomplishments in New York were so remarkable that he may become the first Haitian declared a saint by the Catholic Church. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/pierre_toussaint/images/820/28_pierretoussaint1_820.jpg image_now_title=Historic marker honoring Pierre Toussaint, St. Patrick's Old Cathedral image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=In 1953, this marker was laid in Toussaint’s honor at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral at 263 Mulberry Street. His remains were later moved to the crypt below the altar of the current St. Patrick’s Cathedral. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Ralph Ellison BASENAME: ellison STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>The Ralph Ellison Memorial at Riverside Park on 150th Street, Manhattan New York is not your typical African American landmark in New York City. Unlike the African Burial Ground or the Jackie Robinson Recreational Center, this memorial is not guarded by walls or cluttered with brochures and desks, ticket prices and tellers, student groups and security guards. The site, in contrast, is completely free and public. Located at the end of a one-way street between two busy roads and set within a collection of bustling Harlem apartment buildings and bodegas, the site offers a visual and atmospheric contrast; a place where New York urbanity meets the tranquil Hudson River.<br /><br />Designed to celebrate the legacy of African American scholar and writer Ralph Waldo Ellison, the memorial is positioned directly across Ellison's last and permanent home at 730 Riverside drive and placed in Riverside Park where he was said to stroll and jive during his creative lifetime.  Distinguished African American artist Elizabeth Catlett designed the sculpture commemorating Ellison, using a 15 foot high, 7 ½ foot wide piece of bronze to depict a cutout silhouette of a man. In interviews Catlett later explained, "I was thinking, he wrote the <em>Invisible Man</em>, so why don't I do an invisible man, since it was the idea of a positive and a negative shape, that's why I did it."  Alongside the sculpture, a low-lying pink granite wall offers quotations from Ellison's writing and inscriptions of biographical details.<br /><br />Today, the Ralph Ellison Memorial sheds significant historical light on the African American experience. The site houses an art piece that embodies the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement led by renowned black artists in the early 20th century who demanded racial equality and just liberation of black Americans on social, political, and economic levels through the production of art, music, and literature.  Inspired by Ellison’s landmark 1947 novel, <em>Invisible Man</em>,  the sculpture represents the struggles of confronting racist stereotypes and promoting social integration in America. </p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.83025 lon=-73.949689 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/ellison.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/ellison/images/820/ellison_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Historic Image of Ralph Ellison image_then_source=Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division image_then_caption=Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994), a writer and scholar, is best known for his novel Invisible Man. Ellison was a constant presence in Harlem neighborhoods. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/ellison/images//820/ellison_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Ralph Ellison Memorial image_now_source=Columbia University image_now_caption=The Ralph Ellison Memorial in Riverside Park in Harlem. The Memorial was unveiled in 2003. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Rikers Island BASENAME: rikers_island STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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.<br /><br />What made this event so unusual was that the soldiers were black.<br /><br />The 20th Colored Regiment was formed by the New York Union League, who hoped to present the black troops as part of the New Society that would take place once the South was defeated and the country united. George Bliss, a prominent member of the Union League who later became the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York City, led the effort to raise money for the formation of New York’s three black regiments.<br /><br />The troops received their training at Rikers Island before being sent to Louisiana. The 20th and the 26th Regiments were part of the 180,000 black soldiers and sailors who served the Union cause. These troops were paid less than half of their white counterparts’ salaries, received inferior equipment, and lived in poor conditions.<br /><br />Near the end of 1864, Rikers Island was transformed from a camp where soldiers were sent for temporary duty and training to a prisoner of war facility for Confederate soldiers.<br /><br />The city of New York purchased the island in 1884 from the Riker family, who had settled it in 1638. Today it is New York City’s largest jail facility. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.792099 lon=-73.881645 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/rikers_island.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_rikers_island.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_rikers_island.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/rikers_island/images/820/MAAP_RikersIsland_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Rikers Island - Black soldiers, Civil War, training image_then_source=Library of Congress image_then_caption=In 1864, the 26th Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops trained on Rikers Island. They went on to fight, along with 180,000 other black soldiers, for the Union cause. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/rikers_island/images/820/38_RikersIsland_Now_820.jpg image_now_title=A map showing present-day Rikers Island image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Located in the East River near Long Island Sound, Rikers Island can be reached by bridge from Queens, but it is considered to be part of the Bronx. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Rocky Point BASENAME: rockypoint STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>Rocky Point is a hamlet located in northern Brookhaven Town. Today, it is a typical suburban settlement characterized by strip malls and shopping areas along North Country Road and residential neighborhoods to the north of this main road. In the 19th century, however, it was a rural, farming community and home to a small settlement of African Americans.</p><p>As early as 1789, Jonah Miller lived in the rural wilderness of Rocky Point more than two miles south of the historic village. Miller was probably one of the earliest black property owners in the community. He was a farmer who acquired a large amount of land between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Active in community affairs, he served as a witness for several financial transactions for his black neighbors, was a member of Mount Sinai Congregational Church, and had at least one child who attended school. </p><p>By 1790, Miller's household stood alongside three other homes that were all inhabited by free African Americans. The Miller, Davis, Sell, and Jessup families resided and owned property in the Town of Brookhaven during the period of gradual emancipation in New York (between 1799 and approximately 1830). While these families were considered free, there were still many Africans and African Americans that remained enslaved in New York at this time. </p><p>Archaeology at the Betsey Prince site has shed light on the activities and lifeways at the household of Prince and Elizabeth Jessup. The accumulation of woodworking tools suggests that Prince was a skilled carpenter. Broken pieces of teawares provide hints about the social and domestic activities of Betsey, who inherited the house after the death of her husband Prince.</p><p>By the mid-19th century, new African American families moved to Rocky Point, in some cases replacing the earlier households. Meanwhile, black settlements were growing in other parts of northern Brookhaven Town. By 1920, however, the African American settlement at Rocky Point was gone, and the memory of the houses was gradually erased from the landscape.<br /></p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.94525 lon=-72.94761 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/rockypoint.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/rockypoint/images//820/rockypt_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Remains of Rocky Point image_then_source=<a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ANTHRO/cfpa/cfpa_about.html" target="_blank">Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University</a> image_then_caption=Many historically African American communities no longer exist but archaeological investigation can contribute to our understanding of the history of these places. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/rockypoint/images//820/rockypoint_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Rocky Point today image_now_source=<a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ANTHRO/cfpa/cfpa_about.html" target="_blank">Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University</a><em></em> image_now_caption=Some communities like Rocky Point have succumbed to suburban growth. The area once home to families and neighbors is now no longer visible. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Samuel Ballton House BASENAME: ballton STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>Samuel Ballton was a well-respected citizen of Greenlawn in the Town of Huntington. It was in 1899 that Ballton was crowned the "Pickle King." His efforts produced an amazing crop of 1.5 million pickles in a single season. Ballton, however, had already led a remarkable life and went on to leave a unique legacy.</p><p>Samuel Ballton was born into slavery in 1838 on a Virginia plantation. At the age of 23, he was sent to work on a section of the Virginia Central Railroad in the Blue Ridge Mountains with other enslaved laborers. Miles from the plantation at the start of the Civil War, Ballton took the opportunity to flee slavery and found a position with a Northern regiment as a cook. </p><p>He had reason to return to Virginia--his wife, Ann Rebecca Richardson. Enslaved on neighboring plantations, the two were married in 1861. Together they walked 50 miles in 14 hours to freedom in Fredericksburg.</p><p>Ballton subsequently joined a Massachusetts regiment facing many battles in the Civil War. In 1873, he moved to Greenlawn, New York and made a living as a tenant farmer. He later became a sharecropper for Alexander Gardiner, owner of the largest farm in Greenlawn. It was at this time that Ballton became famous for the record numbers of cucumbers and cabbages that he produced.</p><p>While working for a large Boston pickle house, Ballton raised funds and began to acquire land near the railroad line in Greenlawn. He built several houses, significantly contributing to early 20th century development of the town, and encouraged individuals from the South to travel north to work on farms and build houses. <br />Ballton is remembered as a hard-working land owner and entrepreneur who contributed positively to the economic growth of Greenlawn. He died in 1917 and was buried in the Huntington Rural Cemetery.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.87052 lon=-73.35838 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/ballton.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/ballton/images//820/ballton_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Samuel Ballton House image_then_source=Courtesy of the Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association. image_then_caption=Ballton and his wife, Ann Rebecca Richardson, were married in 1861. They called this home during their time in Greenlawn. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/ballton/images/820/Balltonhousenow_820.jpg image_now_title=Samuel Ballton House image_now_source=<a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ANTHRO/cfpa/cfpa_about.html" target="_blank">Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University</a> image_now_caption=Samuel Ballton built several houses during his time in Greenlawn many of which are still private residences. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Sandy Ground BASENAME: sandy_ground STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: On February 23, 1828, Captain John Jackson purchased land in a place known as Sandy Ground on what is now Staten Island. He was the first African American known to own property on Staten Island. When other freed families followed him, the rural village became something incredibly rare in the nation--a free black community. It was called Harrisville at first, and then Little Africa, and finally Sandy Ground. It was mostly a farming community until 1841, when oyster gatherers, fleeing violence in the Baltimore area, arrived. The town was located on the southwestern shore of Staten Island, and rich oyster beds were within walking distance. <br /><br />The community grew into a place of well-maintained homes surrounded by fenced cropland. The Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1850, became the center of the community and probably a major stop on the Underground Railroad. There was a Sandy Ground School, and in 1855, the Union Free School became the second public school on Staten Island to accept black students.  <br /><br />Today, descendants of Sandy Ground settlers still worship at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and visitors can view a collection of photographs, letters, quilts and other artifacts at the Sandy Ground Historical Society Museum and Library. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.541164 lon=-74.216653 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/sandy_ground.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/sandy_ground/images/820/MAAP_SandyGround_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Photo of Oyster Workers, 1894. image_then_source=Courtesy Alice Austen Collection, Staten Island Historical Society. image_then_caption=The people of Sandy Ground built one of the only free black communities to exist in the early 1800s. Oyster gatherers, such as these from Maryland, helped the community grow. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/sandy_ground/images/820/54_SandyGround_Now_820.jpg image_now_title=A map showing Sandy Ground in the present image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The Sandy Ground Historical Society Museum and Library is located at 1538 Woodrow Road. Here, one can explore the culture and history of this free black community. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Schomburg Library BASENAME: schomberg_library STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture holds one of the best library collections focused on black history in the world. The collection was begun by a young black man newly arrived from Puerto Rico named Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. Arthur Schomburg (1874–1938), as he was called, worked as an elevator operator, bellhop, porter, and printer. On his own time he followed his passion: reading, writing, and collecting everything he could on the history of Africans and their descendants. It was said that Schomburg had a fifth-grade teacher who told him “Black people have no history, no heroes, no great moments.” He would prove that teacher very wrong. <br /><br />Schomburg arrived in New York City at the age of 17 and became part of the exciting scene known as the Harlem Renaissance. Here he continued adding books, photographs, artwork, sheet music, newspapers, pamphlets, and memoirs to his growing collection. <br /><br />In 1926 his whole incredible collection was sold to the 135th Street branch library. Even then Schomburg continued to add to it, often using his own money. When he began serving as curator at the library in 1932, he was able to reach out to young scholars. Schomburg told one scholar, “What you’re calling African history, Negro history, are the missing pages of World history.” After Schomburg’s death in 1938, the library was renamed in his honor. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.814639 lon=-73.940556 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/schomberg_library.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/schomberg_library/images/820/MAAP_Schomberg_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Arturo "Arthur" Schomburg image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1225982">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture /General Research and Reference Division/The New York Public Library</a> image_then_caption=This photo shows Arturo "Arthur" Schomburg in about 1896. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/schomberg_library/images/820/47_ABG4583_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street. The library includes 6 million items from books to music, photographs, films, and artwork ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Seneca Village BASENAME: seneca_village STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: As a community of free black property owners, Seneca Village was unique in its day. It was located in the hilly, rock-strewn woods between 82nd and 89th Streets and 7th and 8th Avenues. At that time it was a long walk to the crowded city. The village grew steadily from 1825, when Andrew Williams first bought three lots for $125. By 1832, about 25 more lots were sold to African Americans. And by the early 1850s, the village boasted three churches, a school, and a population of some 300 people. Over the years, German and Irish immigrants joined the community. This diverse community lived in peace, attending the All Angel’s Church together and sharing the services of one midwife. <br /><br />But as the city pushed north, the media began to paint a different picture of the little village, calling it a “shantytown” and calling the property owners “squatters” who were “wretched and debased.” Many people in the city, including Mayor Fernando Wood, wanted the land for a great new park. In 1855, the mayor used the power of eminent domain to claim the land. Then he sent the police to clear it. For two years the residents resisted the police as they petitioned the courts to save their homes, churches, and schools. In 1857, they were finally removed. As one newspaper put it, the raid upon Seneca Village would “not be forgotten…[as] many a brilliant and stirring fight was had during the campaign. But the supremacy of the law was upheld by the policeman’s bludgeons.” ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.784702 lon=-73.96743 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/seneca_village.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/copeland_seneca_village_community.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/copeland_seneca_village_community.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/seneca_village/images/820/MAAP_SenecaVillage_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Seneca Village image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=This map (pictured) shows Seneca Village, a largely black community that thrived from 1825 until 1855, when the land was made part of Central Park by the city. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/seneca_village/images/820/24_senecavillage_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Seneca Village site image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Today, as you walk in Central Park near West Drive and 85th Street, you can see a plaque commemorating Seneca Village. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Setauket BASENAME: setauket STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>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). The BCALH recognizes the historic Native and African American descended community that has lived in the Setauket area since colonial times. </p><p>Centered on the Bethel AME congregation founded in 1848, the 1815 Laurel Hill cemetery, as well as residences of many community families, the BCALH also serves to remember other minority neighborhoods that have been lost to encroaching suburban development in East Setauket and Old Field. <br /><br />Two principle families, the Harts and the Sells, are among many other prominent family names in the community's history such as Eato, Lewis, Edwards, Phillips, Scott, Green, Seaman, Young, and Tobias. Well-known community members include Rachel Hart, who was painted by William Sidney Mount in his famous work "Eel Spearing in Setauket," and Jacob Hart (c.1857-1931) a laborer, mason, husband, father, homeowner and highly respected patriarch of the modern community. </p><p>In recent years, Theodore Green documented the Setalcott heritage of many members of the community. The Setalcott were the indigenous Native American community in the area. Their sachems Warawakmy and Mahue signed grants that opened land in Setauket to whites, who brought the first enslaved Africans to the Town of Brookhaven after 1670. In subsequent generations descendant Setalcotts and Africans intermarried forming an essential component of the larger Setauket population. While most worked as servants and laborers, the population was nevertheless organized, economically stable, and has persisted into the present.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.9436 lon=-73.12182 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/setauket.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/setauket/images/820/setauket_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Jacob and Hannah Hart House image_then_source=Three Village Historical Society image_then_caption=Constructed in the late 19th century by Jacob and Hannah Hart on property they purchased in 1888. Historic documents make frequent references to Jacob Hart as a mason, factory worker, husband, and father. The home was torn down in the 1940s. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/setauket/images/820/setauket_cabin_820.jpg image_now_title=Ernest Hart Cabin (ca. 1931) image_now_source=Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University image_now_caption=Upon his father's death, Ernest Hart, the youngest son of Jacob and Hannah, he built this small 6x9 foot cabin behind the home of his sister, Lucy Hart Keyes, maintaining family ties still critical today. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Shiloh Presbyterian Church BASENAME: shiloh_presbyterian_church STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: The Shiloh Presbyterian Church boasts a long tradition of radical black leadership. It was founded as the First Colored Presbyterian Church by Samuel Cornish in 1822. Cornish helped found Freedom’s Journal, the nation’s first black newspaper. Its second pastor, Theodore Wright, was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and its third pastor was the fiery Henry Highland Garnet. All three were great thinkers, speakers, and leading abolitionists. <br /><br />From its founding, the Shiloh Church was part of the Underground Railroad. Under Garnet, the Shiloh congregation found new ways to fight slavery. He called for boycotts of sugar, cotton and rice because they were products of slave labor. Garnet was passionate in his hatred for slavery. He was raised in slavery until he escaped with his family at the age of 9. Years later slave-catchers kidnapped his sister. Even though she was rescued, Garnet remained enraged. Convinced that talking would never change the minds of slave owners, he was among the first to call for an uprising. “Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties” he said. “Now is the day and the hour…Rather die freemen than live to be slaves.” Years later, when John Brown was hung for leading an armed slave uprising in Virginia, Garnet held a large memorial for him at the Shiloh Church.<br /><br />As blacks in New York moved north, so did the Shiloh Church until members of the congregation founded St. James Presbyterian Church located in Harlem today. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.82138 lon=-73.94636 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/shiloh_presbyterian_church.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/shiloh_presbyterian_church/images/820/MAAP_ShilohPresb_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Portrait of Henry Highland Garnet image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1242287">Humanities and Social Sciences Library/Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs/The New York Public Library </a> image_then_caption=The Shiloh Presbyterian Church was part of the Underground Railroad and led by three great abolitionists: Samuel Cornish, Theodore Wright, and the fiery Henry Highland Garnet (pictured). image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/shiloh_presbyterian_church/images/820/59_ABG0048_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Shiloh Presbyterian Church image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Over time the Shiloh Church moved north to Five Points, and then to Midtown. In 1895, members of the church founded St. James Presbyterian Church, now located at 409 W. 141st St. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Slave Market BASENAME: the_slave_market STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: In 1711, New York was growing quickly, and the growing needs of the city were often supplied by slave labor. Nearly 1,000 out of about 6,400 New Yorkers were black, and at least 40 percent of the white households included a slave. In these homes, enslaved workers cooked, washed, sewed, hauled water, emptied the chamber pots, swept out the fireplaces and the chimneys, and cared for the children. Along the East River they built, loaded, and unloaded, the ships. They cleared the land uptown, and then planted and harvested the crops.  And up and down the narrow streets they pedaled their master’s goods and even supplied the city’s first fast foods—fresh oysters and steaming hot corn on the cob. <br /><br />As the number of slaves imported into the city soared, barrel makers, butchers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and tin workers began to purchase young enslaved men in order to teach them their trades. Typically, when a slave owner ran out of work, they hired their slaves out at half the rate of free labor. <br /><br />Often the slaves themselves were sent out to find work. In a time when fear of a slave uprising was ever-present, the sight of so many enslaved men walking the streets looking to be hired caused alarm. Fearful white citizens began to complain. They demanded a market where slaves could be hired, bought, and sold. Finally, on December 13, 1711, the City Council passed a law “that all Negro and Indian slaves that are let out to hire…be hired at the Market house at the Wall Street Slip…” This market, known as the Meal Market (because grains were sold there), was located at the foot of Wall Street on the East River. It was the city’s first slave market. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.705181 lon=-74.007401 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/the_slave_market.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_slave_market/images/820/MAAP_SlaveMkt_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=The Slave Market image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=The Slave Market, located where Wall Street reached the East River, was established in 1711 as a place where enslaved blacks and Native Americans could be hired or purchased. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_slave_market/images/820/9_slavemarket_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the site of the Slave Market image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Today, the site of the Slave Market, located at the intersection of Wall Street and Water Street, is far from the water’s edge. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Slave Revolt of 1712 BASENAME: 1712_slave_revolt STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: In the early 1700s, New York had one of the largest slave populations of any of England’s colonies. One out of every five New York residents was enslaved.<br /><br />Slavery in New York differed from some of the colonies because there were no large plantations. Many of the enslaved Africans were skilled workers, carpenters, stone masons, fishermen, and boat builders.<br /><br />These slaves lived and worked next to free and indentured whites, and some intermarried when they got their freedom.<br /><br />No one knows for certain what caused the revolt that happened the night of April 6, 1712, but this much is known: Between 20 and 70 armed Africans set fire to a building. When white settlers tried to put out the fire, they were attacked, resulting in the death of nine whites and injury to eight others.<br /><br />Militia units from Westchester and lower New York put down the insurrection. Seventy slaves and free blacks were jailed and 43 were put on trial. Eighteen were acquitted and 25 convicted, resulting in 20 being hanged and three burned at the stake.<br /><br />This uprising resulted in the passage of even tougher slave codes by the New York State legislature, giving slave owners great leeway in meting out punishment to enslaved Africans. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.707221 lon=-74.007456 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/1712_slave_revolt.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/1712_slave_revolt/images/820/MAAP_SlaveRevoltNEW_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=New York in 1712 image_then_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_then_caption=On the night of April 6, 1712, a large well-planned and violent uprising began on Maiden Lane, which at that time ran along the northern edge of the city. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/1712_slave_revolt/images/820/10_ABG0013_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Maiden Lane image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Maiden Lane once included an orchard, where enslaved Africans and two Native Americans met to plan the rebellion. Today the lane is part of downtown’s financial district. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Sojourner Truth BASENAME: sojourner_truth STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: In 1797, a baby girl named Isabella was born in upstate New York. Her parents were Elizabeth and James Baumfree, but she was the property of their Dutch master, who sold her off at the age of 9. By the time she was 12, she had been sold two more times. When slavery was outlawed in New York, Isabella was 30 years old, the mother of four surviving children, and finally free to leave. She reached New York City in 1829 and joined the Mother AME Zion Church. Known as a preacher and prophet, she spent 14 years in the city before suddenly declaring, “The Spirit calls me there and I must go.” That day in 1843 she left to travel the land and spread the Lord’s word as Sojourner Truth. <br /><br />Sojourner Truth traveled throughout New England and as far west as Kansas. When she spoke, everyone listened—even the hecklers. She gave her most famous speech at a women’s rights convention in Ohio. As one there remembered it, the hecklers were hissing but, “At her first word there was a profound hush.” When one man called women “weak,” Truth looked him in the eye and in her low voice said, “I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well -- and ain’t I a woman?” Another time she stopped the hissing with “…we’ll have our rights; see if we don't: and you can’t stop us from them; see if you can. You may hiss as much as you like, but it is comin’.”<br /><br />A legend in her own time, Sojourner Truth died in 1883 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Her funeral was said to be the largest ever seen there. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.715176 lon=-73.992867 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/sojourner_truth.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/sojourner_truth/images/820/Three_quarter_length_portrait_of_Sojourner_Truth_820.jpg image_then_title=Three-quarter length portrait of Sojourner Truth image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?44SCCDV">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/Photographs and Prints Division/The New York Public Library</a> image_then_caption=Born a slave in 1797 in Ulster County, New York, Sojourner Truth spoke out against slavery and injustice, and for women’s rights, making people from President Lincoln to street toughs listen. The phrase "I sell the shadow..." often accompanied copies of this portrait, which was sold to raise funds for the anti-slavery cause. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/sojourner_truth/images/820/56_sojurnertruth_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the site of Sojourner Truth's former home image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=While living in New York City, Isabella Baumfree became Sojourner Truth and left her home at 74 Canal Street to spread the “Lord’s truth.” She became a legend in her own time. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: St. Philip's Episcopalian Church BASENAME: st_philip-s_episcopalian_church STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: The congregation of St. Philip’s has roots that reach back to 1704. That was when Elias Neau, a Frenchman who had himself suffered slavery, opened his home to teach enslaved New Yorkers to read the Bible. Neau was connected to Trinity Church on Wall Street, and soon Neau’s students began to worship there on Sunday afternoons. Trinity Church was segregated. <br /><br />As the black worshipers grew frustrated with the church’s refusal to condemn slavery or end the segregation, they began to meet separately, forming the Free African Church of St. Philip. In 1818, skilled carpenters among the group built a small wood church on Centre Street, near Worth.  The church immediately became a center of mutual aid and anti-slavery activities as well as of worship. It grew to become one of the largest black congregations in New York, in spite of fires, racist attacks, and riots. After a fire burned the wooden church, a brick one was built. It survived a riot of 1834, when the church organ, furniture, and much of the building was destroyed by a white mob. It was attacked again during the Civil War Draft Riot, and the police used St. Philip’s as a barracks for militia and police as they battled thousands of enraged whites for control of the city. <br /><br />As New York grew and blacks moved north, the church moved, too, first to 25th Street and finally to 134th Street in 1910. There, St. Philip’s continues its tradition of worship as well as its work for social and economic justice. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.713734 lon=-74.003448 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/st_philip-s_episcopalian_church.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jones_st_philip-s_episcopalian_church.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jones_st_philip-s_episcopalian_church.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/st_philip-s_episcopalian_church/images/820/MAAP_StPhilips_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=St. Philip’s Episcopal Church. John F.E. Prud’homme engraving after William Bayley image. image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=St. Philip’s Episcopal Church was a black center for worship, mutual aid, and activism throughout the 1800s. It was located at 31 Centre Street between Worth and Leonard until 1886. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/st_philip-s_episcopalian_church/images/820/21_stphilips_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of St. Philips Episcopal Church image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Located at 204 W. 134th Street, the present church building is a New York City Designated Landmark. It was designed by the first African American architect licensed in New York. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Studio Museum in Harlem BASENAME: studio_museum STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: From before this nation was formed, Africans and their descendants have contributed enormously to American culture. But for hundreds of years, they were largely excluded from or overlooked by museums and galleries. The Studio Museum in Harlem was founded to change that. Founded in 1968, its mission has been to serve as “the nexus for black artists locally, nationally, and internationally, and for work that has been inspired by black culture.” It remains the only museum of its kind in the world.<br /><br />It all began in a rented loft on 125th street. From its beginnings it was more than a museum; it was an exciting place to be. It was a place where black artists could come and work, experiment, see the work of other black artists, and show their work to the public. Through a program called the Artists-In-Residence program, 3 artists per year receive art materials, a stipend (allowance), and space to create their work. The artists work with all types of media including painting, printmaking, sculpture, digital art, photography, sound, and video. Then they exhibit their work in the museum's galleries at the end of the program.<br /><br />The SMH also shows work from their permanent collection—a growing body of work that has been donated or purchased over the years. This collection includes the work of well-known artists such as Jacob Lawrence. The Museum also holds beautiful photographs by James Van Der Zee, who chronicled the Harlem community from 1906 to 1984. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.808308 lon=-73.946752 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/studio_museum.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jones_studio_museum_harlem.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jones_studio_museum_harlem.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/studio_museum/images/820/MAAP_StudioMuseum_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Street Story Quilt, Parts 1,2 3. 1. The Accident, 2. The Fire, 3. The Home Coming. 1985 image_then_source=Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. image_then_caption=From its beginnings in a rented loft, the Studio Museum in Harlem has shown the work of black artists, including Faith Ringgold’s Street Story Quilt (pictured). image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/studio_museum/images/820/46_ABG2429_820.jpg image_now_title=A current view inside the Studio Museum in Harlem image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The Studio Museum in Harlem is now located at 144 W. 125th Street. It shows the work of emerging black artists as well as the work of well-known artists from their permanent collection. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Tappan Brothers BASENAME: the_tappan_brothers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Lewis and Arthur Tappan were brothers who earned a fortune importing silk from Asia. In 1841, Lewis went on to form the Mercantile Agency. Today it is known as Dun and Bradstreet, a billion-dollar corporation. <br /><br />At that time, more and more white New Yorkers were in favor of ending slavery, but very few were for equal rights. The Tappans were different. They demanded “universal liberty.” Whites, such as the Tappans, who spoke out for equality were hated and often targeted. During the riots of 1834, pro-slavery mobs attacked the Tappans repeatedly. First the Chatham Chapel, which the brothers rented for abolitionist meetings, was attacked. The next day Lewis’s home was attacked; his belongings were piled in the street and burned. Then Arthur’s store was attacked—twice. A year later a $100,000 reward was offered to anyone who delivered the dead bodies of the Tappans to any slave state. The only protection Lewis relied on was the Bible in his breast pocket. Both brothers drew on their faith for strength and continued their abolitionist work.<br /><br />Working with African Americans such as Frederick Douglass, Samuel Cornish, and Henry Highland Garnet, the brothers accomplished many things. They helped found the New York Anti-Slavery Society and were actively part of the Underground Railroad. Lewis organized the defense for the Africans of the slave ship Amistad. The brothers also gave money to integrated colleges, abolitionist newspapers, and many other anti-slavery organizations. Arthur Tappan died in 1865, the year that the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery. Lewis Tappan died 8 years later. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.704796 lon=-74.008995 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/the_tappan_brothers.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_tappan_brothers/images/820/MAAP_ArthurTappan_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Arthur Tappan image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=Arthur (pictured) and his brother Lewis were both staunch abolitionists. Lewis also formed a company that would become Dun and Bradstreet. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_tappan_brothers/images/820/33_tappanbrothers_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the site of the Tappan Brothers' offices image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The offices of Arthur and Lewis Tappan were located at 122 Pearl Street. When pro-slavery mobs attacked during the riots of 1834, clerks fought them off with firearms. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Theodore Wright House BASENAME: the_theodore_wright_house STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: One day in the mid-1800s, 28 men, women, and children snuck into New York City. They were runaways, escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad. Theodore Wright and his friend Charles Ray spent the day getting food for them, as well as passage on a barge to Albany. From there, all 28 fled to Canada, where they could live free. Wright helped many slaves to freedom, but there are few documents that tell about his work, since it was illegal. <br /><br />Theodore Sedgwick Wright was born in 1797 and educated at the African Free School. He went on to become the first black graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Wright was born free, but he hated slavery and did everything in his power to fight it. His home was a station on the Underground Railroad, and he spoke out against slavery from the pulpit of his church on Prince Street. He was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society and president of the New York Committee of Vigilance. To belong to abolitionist societies at that time took courage. During the riots of 1834, white toughs attacked the offices and homes of abolitionists, breaking and burning everything they could lay their hands on. <br /><br />As slavery was in the process of being abolished in New York, Wright was one of the first to speak out against racism. At an anti-slavery convention of both white and black delegates, he boldly stated, “It is an easy thing to ask about the vileness of slavery, but to treat the man of color in all circumstances as a man and brother -- that is the test.” Wright died in 1847, as slavery was spreading to the West. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.719563 lon=-74.00602 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/the_theodore_wright_house.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_theodore_wright_house/images/820/MAAP_TheodoreWright_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Runaway slave posters image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1114476">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture /General Research and Reference Division/The New York Public Library </a> image_then_caption=Before slavery was abolished, newspapers and magazines often carried advertisements like this one from 1784, offering rewards for the recapture of people who had fled from bondage. Though he was born free and was well-educated, Theodore S. Wright risked his own home and well-being every time he helped a runaway reach freedom in Canada. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/the_theodore_wright_house/images/820/64_theodorewhitehouse_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Theodore Wright house image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=Wright’s home at 235 W. Broadway was part of the Underground Railroad at a time when slave catchers roamed the streets of the city and kidnapped runaways to return them south. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Tontine Coffeehouse BASENAME: tontine_coffeehouse STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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. Powerbrokers of the day met in a room there to buy, sell, and trade. As soon as a ship’s captain reached the harbor, this is where he came to register his cargo. The goods coming into New York in the 1790s included coffee, tea, sugar and molasses, fine furniture, cloth, cotton, and enslaved men, women, and children. <br /><br />The companies that insured, outfitted, and owned the boats used to carry Africans from their homelands to enslavement often traded on the stock market. The slave trade was big business and New Yorkers made huge profits from it long after slavery was made illegal in the state. The first and last New York slave trader to be executed was caught in April 1861, as the first shots of the Civil War were fired.<br /><br />The New York Stock Exchange has roots that go back to a spring day in 1792, when a group of 24 men met outside 68 Wall Street in the shade of a huge sycamore tree that locals called a buttonwood. They set down the rules they would trade by and called it the Buttonwood Agreement. Later that year, trading moved into a room on the second floor of the Tontine Coffee House, where it remained until 1817. In the words of its president, it was a place “filled with underwriters, brokers, merchants, traders, and politicians; selling, purchasing, trafficking, or insuring; some reading, others eagerly inquiring the news…Everything was in motion; all was life, bustle and activity." It was also a place built on slavery. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.70548 lon=-74.007793 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/tontine_coffeehouse.mp3 image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/tontine_coffeehouse/images/820/MAAP_Tontine_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Tontine Coffee House, c.1797 (oil on linen), image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=In 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was located in the Tontine Coffee House at 82 Wall Street. Slave ships were registered here and a value was assigned to the Africans on board. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/tontine_coffeehouse/images/820/18_tontine2_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Tontine Coffeehouse site image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=In the 1790s, the Tontine Coffee House was only one block from the East River. By 1820, it was 2 blocks from the river as landfill widened Manhattan Island. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Wall Street BASENAME: 1_wall_st STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: 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. The trench followed a rough path that ran along the north edge of the village. It was March 1653, and Governor Stuyvesant had been sent orders to fortify New Amsterdam. English warships were gathering in Boston Harbor, readying to sail south and take the Dutch colony. <br /><br />The men digging the trench had names such as Paulo d’Angola, Simon Congo, and Anthony Portuguese. As their names showed, many were Africans who had worked aboard Spanish or Portuguese ships before the Dutch seized them. These Africans were owned by the Dutch West India Company, but some had gained a form of half-freedom. They worked for themselves, but owed the company labor whenever needed. Half-free or enslaved, they could own property, testify in court, bear arms in emergencies, attend church, and marry. But their children were not free.<br /><br />When the Africans finished the trench, they formed a wall by standing big logs into it. Each log was 18 inches around and 12 feet long. Then they pounded dirt and stones back into the trench around the base of each log to make the wall strong. They built blockhouses at the ends of the wall, and gates were added where roads ran through it. But as soon as the wall was finished, it was no longer needed. The Netherlands and England had signed a peace treaty. However, the wall built by the Africans gave the rough path that eventually became a street with a new name—Wall Street. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.707729 lon=-74.011711 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/1_wall_st.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_1_wall_street.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_1_wall_street.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/1_wall_st/images/820/MAAP_WallStreet_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=The Castello Plan, New Amsterdam in 1660 image_then_source=© Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library image_then_caption=In 1653, Africans built a wall along the northern edge of New Amsterdam to protect the Dutch community from the English. It stretched from the Hudson River clear across the island to the East River. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/1_wall_st/images/820/5_wallstreet_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of Wall Street image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=The wall became Wall Street, which is now the financial capital of the world. Up until the Civil War and long after slavery in New York was illegal, Wall Street firms profited from the slave trade. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: Weeksville BASENAME: weeksville STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: Far from the bustle and racism of Manhattan, on what was then the outskirts of Brooklyn, free blacks built a community called Weeksville. The community began when a black longshoreman from Virginia, James Weeks, bought a plot of land in 1838, just 11 years after slavery ended in New York State. Soon others followed and built schools, churches, an orphanage, and an old-age home. Black-owned businesses grew and one of the country’s first African American newspapers, Freedman’s Torchlight, was published. The community boasted the first black female physician in the state and the first black police officer in the city. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad and, after the Civil War Draft riots of 1863, a refuge for black families fleeing the racist violence that spread across Manhattan. <br /><br />By 1968 Weeksville and its history were largely forgotten until historian James Hurley and pilot Joseph Haynes set out to find it—from the air. Remarkably they found four small buildings, overgrown and dilapidated, but original. Then Joan Maynard, an artist and member of the community, got involved. She was determined to restore the homes as a museum. With her leadership and lots of community support, the buildings became New York City landmarks and were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1968, and $3 million later, Maynard saw the first building restored and opened to the public. Today The Heritage Center is located at 1698 Bergen Street between Rochester and Utica Avenues. ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.674783 lon=-73.925929 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/weeksville.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_weeksville.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/jackson_weeksville.mov image_then=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/weeksville/images/820/MAAP_Weeksville_Then_820.jpg image_then_title=Portrait of a woman image_then_source=© AP Photo /Weeksville Society image_then_caption=This unidentified photograph was found in Weeksville, one of the earliest free black communities in the country. Located in Brooklyn, it was a refuge for those fleeing both slavery and racism. image_now=http://maap.columbia.edu/content/places/weeksville/images/820/48_Weeksville_Now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Hunterfly road houses, Weeksville image_now_source=© Curriculum Concepts International image_now_caption=You can visit the Weeksville Heritage Center located at 1698 Bergen Street between Rochester and Utica Avenues to see the three restored Hunterfly Road Houses. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: West Indian Day Parade BASENAME: westindianparade STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>Many slaves brought the tradition of African outdoor ceremonies to the Caribbean. However, once enslaved, they were prohibited from holding public celebrations despite their slaveholders' engagement in street parades like Mardi Gras. Once freed, ex-slaves began their own street celebrations, combining elements of African and European culture. Costumes for these celebrations became larger and more spectacular as the parades became louder and wilder, infused with musical rhythms. As Caribbean people migrated to North America, they brought with them this new type of carnival. <br /><br />During the 1920s in New York, a Trinidadian immigrant, Ms. Jesse Waddle, began to organize a carnival celebration to take place before Lent in the months of February or March. Due to New York's cold winter weather, these celebrations originally occurred indoors at places like the Savoy, the Renaissance, and the Audubon Ballroom. Eventually, the indoor locations became a problem because of their confinements on the movement and freedom that defined the carnival. Waddle applied for and received a street parade permit in the 1940s and shifted the celebrations to a warmer time of year, Labor Day. <br /><br />The Harlem permit was revoked in 1964 due to a violent riot. Five years later, a committee organized by Trinidadian Carlos Lezama obtained another permit for a parade on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. The parade has been held there ever since, beginning at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue and ending at Grand Army Plaza.  Under the guidance of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, the parade, now known as the West Indian Day Parade, has expanded and grown into one of the biggest parades of the New York City, attracting 4 million spectators and participants from around the world.<br /><br />Costumes and, particularly, face masks are more elaborate every year at the West Indian Day Parade. Participants invest both money and time to come up with themes, costumes, and floats for the festivities. Face masks, which are often very large in size, come in a wide variety of styles inspired by natural and spiritual elements, mythical creatures, political events, and popular culture. The artistic and historical value of the parade cannot be denied and outstanding costumes are recognized with various prizes. Most importantly, though, the parade displays participants' pride in their country, heritage, and culture.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.66886 lon=-73.928349 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/westindianparade.mp3 image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/west_indian_parade/images//820/westindianparade_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Historic view of West Indian Day Parade image_then_source=<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1225995">New York Public Library</a> image_then_caption= A 1948 view of the West Indian Day Parade when it was located in Harlem. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/west_indian_parade/images/820/westindianparade_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of West Indian Day Parade image_now_source=<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bumpershine/2820478488/">Flickr</a> image_now_caption=A West Indian Day Parade performer in costume, 2008. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: TITLE: William Floyd Estate BASENAME: william_floyd_estate STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: textile_2 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Places CATEGORY: Places DATE: 11/30/2009 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY: <p>William Floyd, the first son of Nicoll and Tabitha Floyd, was born on the south shore of Long Island in 1734. His father purchased the Mastic Beach property in 1724 and built the Old Mastic house to serve as the family's home.</p><p>The Floyds were a prominent family and William quickly developed a successful career in politics at national, state, and local levels while maintaining the family plantation. Labor-intensive agricultural crops as well as cattle, sheep, hogs, and fowl all required tending. Floyd relied on both free and enslaved labor on the farm and domestic help in the manor house. The Federal Census of 1790 records that the William Floyd household held 14 people as slaves, and five free people of color. Over the next 20 years the Floyds owned fewer people of African descent and employed more, keeping the number of people of color roughly the same on the estate.</p><p>Many other people lived in the vicinity of the estate and found work with the Floyds. Native Americans from the Unkechaug tribe were settled on the nearby Poosepatuck Indian Reservation as early as 1700. Unkechaug peoples married with free and enslaved African Americans, and their descendants remain in the area.</p><p>Today, the William Floyd Estate is owned and operated by the National Park Service. Memories and histories captured in paintings and writings by members of the Floyd family reflect African American and Native American laborers at the farm. A cemetery on the estate is preserved and remembers those enslaved for their labor, many owned by William Floyd whose signature appears on the Declaration of Independence.</p> ----- EXTENDED BODY: googlemap= lat=40.77387 lon=-72.82915 desc_audio=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/podcasts/projects/maap/william_floyd_estate.mp3 commentary_audio1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/day_william_floyd_estate.mp3 commentary_video1=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/projects/maap/day_william_floyd_estate.mov image_then=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/william_floyd_estate/images//820/williamfloyd_then_820.jpg image_then_title=Old Mastic House at the William Floyd Estate, ca. 1792 image_then_source=William Floyd Estate, Fire Island National Seashore, National Park Service. image_then_caption=Free and enslaved laborers worked in both the house and fields and a community sprung up around this Mastic, Long Island estate. image_now=http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/maap/content/places/william_floyd_estate/images//820/williamfloyd_now_820.jpg image_now_title=Current view of the Old Mastic House at the William Floyd Estate image_now_source=<a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Colleges/HCLAS/ANTHRO/cfpa/cfpa_about.html" target="_blank">Center for Public Archaeology at Hofstra University</a> image_now_caption=The William Floyd Estate is owned and operated by the National Park Service and can be visited by the public during hours of operation. ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- --------