Little Africa, Manhattan

Last updated

Church of St. Benedict the Moor, 210 Bleecker Street, in 1893 (King1893NYC) pg402 CHURCH OF ST. BENEDICT THE MOOR, ROMAN CATHOLIC, 210 BLEECKER STREET.jpg
Church of St. Benedict the Moor, 210 Bleecker Street, in 1893
Black and Tan saloon in Little Africa, from How the Other Half Lives. Riis, Jacob A. - Ein Black-and-Tan Sprung in >>Afrika<< (Zeno Fotografie).jpg
Black and Tan saloon in Little Africa, from How the Other Half Lives .

Little Africa was an African American neighborhood in Greenwich Village and particularly the South Village, from the mid-19th century until about the turn of the 20th century. The dominant African American center in Manhattan of its period, as part of a general northward march uptown it was preceded by the Five Points (also known as "Little Africa" or Stagg Town), and succeeded by the Tenderloin, San Juan Hill and eventually Harlem. Its main thoroughfare was Thompson Street, and also the complex of Minetta Lane/Street/Place, and much of its historic area lies with the current Sullivan-Thompson Historic District. [1]

Little Africa initially developed as a reaction to the violence of the 1834 anti-abolition riots in the Five Points. It formed a demographic contrast to the smaller, more rural and middle-class Seneca Village located farther north until its razing in 1857. [2] The urban neighborhood suffered great violence itself during the 1863 draft riots, although in the aftermath of the Civil War its African American population grew with the migration of Southern freedmen.

Two centuries before the urban neighborhood, under Dutch colonial rule there was a complex of African-owned farms in approximately the same area north of New Amsterdam.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Five Points, Manhattan</span> Neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City

Five Points was a 19th-century neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The neighborhood, partly built on low-lying land which had filled in the freshwater lake known as the Collect Pond, was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row to the south. The Five Points gained international notoriety as a densely populated, disease-ridden, crime-infested slum which existed for over 70 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seneca, South Carolina</span> City in Oconee County, South Carolina

Seneca is a city in Oconee County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 8,102 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Seneca Micropolitan Statistical Area, an (MSA) that includes all of Oconee County, and that is included within the greater Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Combined Statistical Area. Seneca was named for the nearby Cherokee town of Isunigu, which English colonists knew as "Seneca Town".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheektowaga, New York</span> Town in New York, United States

Cheektowaga is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town has grown to a population of 89,877. The town is in the north-central part of the county, and is an inner ring suburb of Buffalo. The town is the second-largest suburb of Buffalo, after the Town of Amherst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watts, Los Angeles</span> Neighborhood of Los Angeles in California, United States

Watts is a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, California. It is located within the South Los Angeles region, bordering the cities of Lynwood, Huntington Park and South Gate to the east and southeast, respectively, and the unincorporated community of Willowbrook to the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Heights (Washington, D.C.)</span> Neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Columbia Heights is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in Northwest D.C. Bounded by 16th Street NW, W Street NW, Florida Avenue NW, Barry Place NW, Sherman Avenue NW, Spring Road NW, and New Hampshire Avenue NW. neighborhood is an important retail hub for the area, as home to DC USA mall and to numerous other restaurants and stores, primarily along the highly commercialized 14th Street. Columbia Heights is home to numerous historical landmarks, including Meridian Hill Park, National Baptist Memorial Church, All Souls Church, along with a number of embassy buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaw (Washington, D.C.)</span> Neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Shaw is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C., located in the Northwest quadrant. Shaw is a major entertainment and retail hub, and much of the neighborhood is designated as a historic district, including the smaller Blagden Alley-Naylor Court Historic District. Shaw and the U Street Corridor have historically have been the city's hub for African-American social, cultural, and economic life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Philadelphia</span> Neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west. A diverse working-class community of many neighborhoods, South Philadelphia is well-known for its large Italian-American population, but it also contains large Asian American, Irish-American, African-American, and Latino populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Burial Ground National Monument</span> Memorial in Manhattan, New York

African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. The site contains the remains of more than 419 Africans buried during the late 17th and 18th centuries in a portion of what was the largest colonial-era cemetery for people of African descent, some free, most enslaved. Historians estimate there may have been as many as 10,000–20,000 burials in what was called the Negroes Burial Ground in the 18th century. The five to six acre site's excavation and study was called "the most important historic urban archaeological project in the United States." The Burial Ground site is New York's earliest known African-American cemetery; studies show an estimated 15,000 African American people were buried here.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Philadelphia</span> Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as everything north of either Vine Street or Spring Garden Street, between Northwest Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia. It is bordered to the north by Olney Ave along Broad Street, Spring Garden Street to the south, 35th Street to the west and Adams Avenue to the east. The Philadelphia Police Department patrols five districts located within North Philadelphia: the 22nd, 25th, 26th, 35th and 39th districts. There are thirteen ZIP codes for North Philadelphia: 19120, 19121, 19122, 19123, 19125, 19126, 19130, 19132, 19133, 19134, 19137, 19140 and 19141.

Seneca Village was a 19th-century settlement of mostly African American landowners in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, within what would become present-day Central Park. The settlement was located near the current Upper West Side neighborhood, approximately bounded by Central Park West and the axes of 82nd Street, 89th Street, and Seventh Avenue, had they been constructed through the park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collinwood</span> Historical area of Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Collinwood is a historical area in the northeast part of Cleveland, Ohio. Originally a village in Euclid Township, it was annexed by the city in 1910. Collinwood grew around the rail yards of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway and is divided by these same tracks into the neighborhoods of North Shore Collinwood and Collinwood–Nottingham. Collinwood was identified as one of America's Best Secret Neighborhoods by Travel + Leisure in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Omaha, Nebraska</span> Neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.

North Omaha is a community area in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. It is bordered by Cuming and Dodge Streets on the south, Interstate 680 on the north, North 72nd Street on the west and the Missouri River and Carter Lake, Iowa on the east, as defined by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth Ward, Houston</span> Historic district in Houston, Texas, United States of America

Fourth Ward is one of the historic six wards of Houston, Texas, United States. The Fourth Ward is located inside the 610 Loop directly west of and adjacent to Downtown Houston. The Fourth Ward is the site of Freedmen's Town, which was a post-U.S. Civil War community of African-Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neighborhoods of Jacksonville</span> Neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Florida

There are more than 500 neighborhoods within the area of Jacksonville, Florida, the largest city in the contiguous United States by area. These include Downtown Jacksonville and surrounding neighborhoods. Additionally, greater Jacksonville is traditionally divided into several major sections with amorphous boundaries: Northside, Westside, Southside, and Arlington, as well as the Jacksonville Beaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neighborhoods of Milwaukee</span>

The neighborhoods of Milwaukee include a number of areas in southeastern Wisconsin within the state's largest city at nearly 600,000 residents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago race riot of 1919</span> August 1919 racial tensions in Chicago, Illinois, US

The Chicago race riot of 1919 was a violent racial conflict between white Americans and black Americans that began on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, on July 27 and ended on August 3, 1919. During the riot, 38 people died. Over the week, injuries attributed to the episodic confrontations stood at 537, two-thirds black and one-third white; and between 1,000 and 2,000 residents, most of them black, lost their homes. Due to its sustained violence and widespread economic impact, it is considered the worst of the scores of riots and civil disturbances across the United States during the "Red Summer" of 1919, so named because of its racial and labor violence. It was also one of the worst riots in the history of Illinois.

Downtown Tulsa is an area of approximately 1.4 square miles (3.6 km2) surrounded by an inner-dispersal loop created by Interstate 244, US 64 and US 75. The area serves as Tulsa's financial and business district; it is the focus of a large initiative to draw tourism, which includes plans to capitalize on the area's historic architecture. Much of Tulsa's convention space is located in downtown, such as the Tulsa Performing Arts Center and the Tulsa Convention Center, as well as the BOK Center. Prominent downtown sub-districts include the Blue Dome District, the Tulsa Arts District, and the Greenwood Historical District, which includes the site of ONEOK Field, a baseball stadium for the Tulsa Drillers opened in 2010.

North 24th Street is a two-way street that runs south–north in the North Omaha area of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. With the street beginning at Dodge Street, the historically significant section of the street runs from Cuming Street to Ames Avenue. A portion of North 24th near Lake Street is considered the "Main Street" of the Near North Side, and was historically referred to as "The Street of Dreams." The corridor is widely considered the heart of Omaha's African-American community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hough, Cleveland</span> Neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Hough is a neighborhood situated on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio. Roughly two square miles, the neighborhood is bounded to Superior and Euclid Avenue between East 55th and East 105th streets. Placed between Downtown Cleveland and University Circle, Hough borders Fairfax and Cedar–Central to the South and Glenville and St. Clair–Superior to the North. The neighborhood became a target for revitalization during the mid-20th century, after the 1966 Hough Riots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uptown, Dallas</span> Place in Texas, United States

Uptown is a PID and a dense neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. Uptown is north of and adjacent to downtown Dallas, and is bordered by US 75 on the east, N Haskell Avenue on the northeast, the Katy Trail on the northwest, Bookhout Street and Cedar Springs Road on the west, N Akard Street on the southwest and Spur 366 on the south.

References

  1. "Black History Month in the Village: The South Village and Little Africa". Village Preservation. 2017-02-03. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  2. Wall, Diana; Rothschild, Nan A.; Copeland, Cynthia (2008). "Seneca Village and Little Africa: Two African American Communities in Antebellum New York City". Historical Archaeology. 42 (Living in Cities Revisited: Trends in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Urban Archaeology (2008)): 97–107. doi:10.1007/BF03377066. JSTOR   25617485. S2CID   159520312.