Image attribution: from Finding Priscilla's Children: The Roots and Branches of Slavery (on exhibit at the New York Historical Society through March 19, 2006) Accessed February 19, 2006.WESTCHESTER, NY - Throughout February, places of worship, community groups, cultural entities, families and most media outlets are offering a satisfying smorgasbord of African American History Month offerings. A few destinations in the New York metropolitan area that I highly recommend include:
Exhibits:
- The Louis Armstrong House Museum, which is offering 2-for-1 admission during Feb
- New-York Historical Society:
The landmark exhibition "Slavery in New York" (extended through March 26, 2006)
Finding Priscilla's Children: The Roots and Branches of Slavery (through March 19, 2006)
Facsimile of the Emancipation Proclamation (through March 26, 2006)
- Also see: NYC & Co.'s "Celebrating NYC's African-American Heritage" and local listings
Events:
- At NY Public Library
- Also see: NYC & Co.'s "Celebrating NYC's African-American Heritage" and local listings
Theater:
- "The Color Purple"
- American Place Theater held performances of Black Boy, Manchild in the Promised Land, and Zora. Click here to register for news and notices of upcoming events.
- Also see: NYC & Co.'s "Celebrating NYC's African-American Heritage" and local listings
Historical Sites and Tours (excerpted from NewYorkology: A New York Travel Guide):
- The African Burial Ground at Duane and Elk streets, (map) which may be the best-known African-American historic landmark downtown
- South Street Seaport Museum tours of African-American History in Lower Manhattan; the next one's scheduled Saturday, March 25.
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture tours
- Big Onion walking tours of Historic Harlem
- Also see: NYC & Co.'s "Celebrating NYC's African-American Heritage" and local listings
Historical Sites:
- 32-34 South William Street, map - site of Dutch West India Company barracks used to house African slaves around 1643 to 1662
- 36 Lispenard, map - home of free black abolitionist David Ruggels, who founded the Committee on Vigilance in 1835 and helped more than 1,000 people escape slavery
- Fraunces Tavern at Pearl and Broad Street - owned by "Black Sam Fraunces," a wealthy West Indian believed of African and French descent.
- Pearl and Chatham streets, map - In 1854 schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings refused to give up space in a whites-only streetcar. Her lawsuit led to the desegregation of most of Manhattan's "street railroads.
- Also see: NYC & Co.'s "Celebrating NYC's African-American Heritage" and local listings
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