Willoughby and Duffield Streets In September of 2007, Duffield Street in downtown Brooklyn got a new name.

Mapping the African American Past (MAAP)

Abolitionist Place - description

132 West 138th Street 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.

Abyssinian Baptist Church - description

Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, on the Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Abyssinian Baptist Church - Kenneth Jackson commentary

Robert O'Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English, Columbia University, on the Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Abyssinian Baptist Church - Robert O'Meally commentary

290 Broadway The African Burial Ground 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.

African Burial Ground - description

Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses the African Burial Ground.

African Burial Ground - Kenneth Jackson commentary

Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Columbia University, discusses the African Burial Ground.

African Burial Ground - Kellie Jones commentary

Dowoti Desir, Executive Director of The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, discusses the African Burial Ground.

African Burial Ground - Dowoti Desir commentary

Rodney Leon, African Burial Ground Memorial architect, discusses the site.

African Burial Ground - Rodney Leon commentary

135-137 Mulberry Street 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.

African Free School - description

Mercer Street near Houston On Mercer Street in the fall of 1821, King Lear limped out onto stage and the audience went wild. Lear was black.

African Grove Theater - description

African Methodist Church moves uptown to Harlem Commentary by Cynthia Copland

African Methodist Church moves to Harlem - Cynthia Copland commentary

42 Baxter Street 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.)

African Society for Mutual Relief - description

3940 Broadway 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.

Audubon Ballroom - description

Dowoti Desir, Executive Director of The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, discusses the Audubon Ballroom.

Audubon Ballroom - Dowoti Desir commentary

Mapping the American Past (MAAP) illustrates places and moments that have shaped the long history of African Americans in New York City.

hubhopper

Mapping the African American Past (MAAP)

hubhopper