Podcasts by Mapping the African American Past (MAAP)
Mapping the American Past (MAAP) illustrates places and moments that have shaped the long history of African Americans in New York City.
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Abyssinian Baptist Church - description from 2008-01-21T11:10:09
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 refuse...
Abyssinian Baptist Church - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T11:10:01
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, on the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
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Abyssinian Baptist Church - Robert O'Meally commentary from 2008-01-21T11:10
Robert O'Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English, Columbia University, on the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
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African Burial Ground - description from 2008-01-21T11:09:12
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 t...
African Burial Ground - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T11:09:04
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses the African Burial Ground.
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African Burial Ground - Kellie Jones commentary from 2008-01-21T11:09
Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Columbia University, discusses the African Burial Ground.
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African Burial Ground - Dowoti Desir commentary from 2008-01-21T11:09
Dowoti Desir, Executive Director of The Malcolm X&Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, discusses the African Burial Ground.
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African Burial Ground - Rodney Leon commentary from 2008-01-21T11:09
Rodney Leon, African Burial Ground Memorial architect, discusses the site.
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African Free School - description from 2008-01-21T11:08:28
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 wa...
African Grove Theater - description from 2008-01-21T11:07:42
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 Methodist Church moves to Harlem - Cynthia Copland commentary from 2008-01-21T11:06:10
African Methodist Church moves uptown to Harlem
Commentary by Cynthia Copland
African Society for Mutual Relief - description from 2008-01-21T11:05:14
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 earli...
Audubon Ballroom - description from 2008-01-21T11:03:42
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 - Dowoti Desir commentary from 2008-01-21T11:03
Dowoti Desir, Executive Director of The Malcolm X&Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, discusses the Audubon Ballroom.
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Bedford-Stuyvesant - description from 2008-01-21T11:02:50
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.
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Bethel AME Church of Amityville - Lynda Day commentary from 2008-01-21T11:02:17
Bethel AME Church, Amityville
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...
Bethel AME Church - description from 2008-01-21T11:02:15
Bethel AME Church, Amityville
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...
Black Brigades - description from 2008-01-21T11:01
10 Church Street
Blacks who fought with the British lived in “Negro barracks”. These men fought in units known as the Black Pioneers and the Black Brigade. Most did the hard support work the...
Booker T. Washington House - description from 2008-01-21T11:00:38
Booker T. Washington House
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 resul...
Booker T. Washington House - Thelma Jackson-Abidally commentary from 2008-01-21T11:00:36
Fort Salonga, Huntington, Long Island
Between the years 1911 and 1915, Booker T. Washington traveled from Alabama to Fort Salonga for rest and relief from the hottest months of the summer. L...
Bridge Street AWME Church - description from 2008-01-21T11:00:18
311 Bridge Street
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 evenin...
Catherine Ferguson - description from 2008-01-21T10:58:13
51 Warren Street
Catherine ("Katy") Ferguson was born in 1779 with almost nothing--not even freedom.
Colored Orphan Asylum - description from 2008-01-21T10:57:17
Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets
If you were black and orphaned in New York in the 1800s, there was nowhere to go but the cruel streets.
Colored Orphan Asylum - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:57:01
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses the Colored Orphan Asylum.
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David Ruggles Home - description from 2008-01-21T10:56:16
67 Lispenard
David Ruggles might have been the most hated activist of his day.
Downing's Oyster House - description from 2008-01-21T10:42:34
5 Broad Street
Before New York was called the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster.
Duke Ellington - description from 2008-01-21T10:36:31
110th Street and 5th Avenue.
Edward Kennedy Ellington (1899–1974), known as Duke Ellington, changed the sound of popular music in America and around the world.
Duke Ellington - Kellie Jones commentary from 2008-01-21T10:36:01
Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Columbia University, discusses Duke Ellington.
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Duke Ellington - Robert O'Meally commentary from 2008-01-21T10:36
Robert O'Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English, Columbia University, discusses Duke Ellington.
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Eastville Community - Lynda Day commentary from 2008-01-21T10:35:05
Eastville, Long Island
Eastville, like many early free African American communities on Long Island, was multi-ethnic. African Americans arrived in Sag Harbor seeking employment in the profita...
Eastville Community - description from 2008-01-21T10:35
Eastville, Long Island
Eastville, like many early free African American communities on Long Island, was multi-ethnic. African Americans arrived in Sag Harbor seeking employment in the profita...
Ebbets Field - description from 2008-01-21T10:34:54
Sullivan Place & McKeever Place, Flatbush, Brooklyn
Located in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, Ebbets Field was constructed in 1913, costing $750,000 to complete. Its home team was th...
Execution Grounds - description from 2008-01-21T10:32:16
Foley Square btween Lafayette and Centre Streets
The year 1741 started out badly. Poor whites and blacks lived in fear of freezing or starving to death.
Execution Grounds - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:31:18
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses the Execution Grounds.
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Five Points - description from 2008-01-21T10:30:38
Worth Street & Baxter Street
Five Points was a neighborhood around the intersection of Worth Street, Baxter Street, and Cross Street, which no longer exists.
Five Points - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:30:01
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Five Points.
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Fort Amsterdam - description from 2008-01-21T10:29:52
One Bowling Green
Fort Amsterdam was designed to be a state-of-the-art diamond-shaped fort, built of stone and bristling with cannon.
Fort Amsterdam - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:29:30
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Fort Amsterdam.
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Fraunces Tavern - description from 2008-01-21T10:29:11
54 Pearl Street
Around the time of the American Revolution, everyone in New York knew Samuel Fraunces.
Fraunces Tavern - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:29:01
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Fraunces Tavern.
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Freetown, Long Island - Allison Manfra McGovern commentary from 2008-01-21T10:28:25
Freetown, East Hampton, Long Island
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....
Frederick Douglass - description from 2008-01-21T10:28:21
36 Lispenard Street
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.
Freedom's Journal - description from 2008-01-21T10:28:21
Freedom's Journal
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 n...
Freetown, Long Island - description from 2008-01-21T10:28:20
Freetown, East Hampton, Long Island
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....
Harlem - description from 2008-01-21T10:28:15
Harlem has been a black community for over 100 years.
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Harlem - Manning Marable commentary from 2008-01-21T10:28:10
Dr. Manning Marable, Professor of History and Political Science and founding Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, discusses Harlem.
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Harlem - Robert O'Meally commentary from 2008-01-21T10:28:09
Robert O'Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English, Columbia University, discusses the Harlem Renaissance.
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Harlem Community Art Center - description from 2008-01-21T10:27:58
290 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan
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...
Harlem Children's Zone - description from 2008-01-21T10:27:54
207 Lenox Ave, Manhattan
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 Child...
The Harlem Hellfighters - description from 2008-01-21T10:27:32
One West 142nd Street
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.
Harlem Hellfighters - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:27:01
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses the 369th Street Armory.
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Harriet Tubman - description from 2008-01-21T10:26:34
143 Nassau Street
Harriet Tubman, or “Moses” as some called her, was worth $40,000 to anyone who could capture her and return her south.
Hofstra University - Martin Luther King, Jr., speech from 2008-01-21T10:25:47
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Commencement Speech for Hofstra University. On June 13th 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. was Hofstra University’s honoree and guest s...
Hofstra University - description from 2008-01-21T10:25:45
Hofstra University, Hempstead, Long Island
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 ...
Hughson’s Tavern - description from 2008-01-21T10:25:24
Liberty and Trinity
In the spring of 1741, all eyes were on a tavern at the corner of Liberty and Trinity Streets.
Hughson's Tavern - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:25:01
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Hughson's Tavern.
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James McCune Smith Pharmacy - description from 2008-01-21T10:24:11
93 West Broadway
In 1824, the aged Revolutionary War hero General Lafayette returned to America for a tour of the nation he had helped to forge.
John Street Church - description from 2008-01-21T10:23:18
John Street Church
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...
John Street Church - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:23
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses the John Street Church.
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Joseph Lloyd Manor - Jenna Coplin commentary from 2008-01-21T10:22:05
Joseph Lloyd Manor
Granted to James Lloyd I in 1685, Lloyd Manor encompassed approximately 3,000 acres of land on the north shore of Long Island. The Manor supplied the Boston-based merchant ...
Joseph Lloyd Manor - description from 2008-01-21T10:22
Joseph Lloyd Manor
Granted to James Lloyd I in 1685, Lloyd Manor encompassed approximately 3,000 acres of land on the north shore of Long Island. The Manor supplied the Boston-based merchant ...
Lakeville Community - Lynda Day commentary from 2008-01-21T10:21
Lakeville
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 an...
Lakeville Community - description from 2008-01-21T10:20
Lakeville, Manhasset, Long Island
Manhasset, a hamlet in the Town of North Hempstead, had a fairly large, steadfast African American settlement in the early nineteenth century. By the third q...
Land of the Blacks - description from 2008-01-21T10:17:20
Minetta Lane
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...
Langston Hughes - description from 2008-01-21T10:16:32
20 E 127th St
One of the leading voices in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Langston Hughes focused his writing on the realistic plight of black people.
Conflict with Central Park Development - Cynthia Copland commentary from 2008-01-21T10:16:31
Conflict with the development of Central Park in upper Manhattan.
Commentary by Cynthia Copland
Langston Hughes - Kellie Jones commentary from 2008-01-21T10:16:01
Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Columbia University, discusses Langston Hughes.
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Louis Armstrong - description from 2008-01-21T10:15:27
34-56 107th Street in Queens
The world’s most famous jazz musician lived in modest Corona, Queens.
Lewis H Latimer - description from 2008-01-21T10:14:40
34-41 137th Street in Flushing, Queens
Lewis Latimer was born free in 1848; his parents George and Rebecca Latimer made sure of that.
Marcus Garvey - description from 2008-01-21T10:12:41
1900 Madison Ave.
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 move...
Marcus Garvey - Kellie Jones commentary from 2008-01-21T10:12:05
Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Columbia University, discusses Marcus Garvey.
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Marcus Garvey - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:12
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Marcus Garvey.
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Minton's Playhouse - description from 2008-01-21T10:11:44
118th street at Saint Nicholas Avenue, Manhattan
Henry Minton, a tenor saxophonist and the first black delegate to Local 802 of the musicians’ union, opened Minton’s Playhouse in 1938. Locat...
Mother AME Zion Church - description from 2008-01-21T10:11:41
158 Church Street
In the late 1700s, the Methodists of the mostly white John Street Church welcomed Africans and their descendents, and many came to worship there.
New York City Draft Riots 1863 - description from 2008-01-21T10:10:48
Gramercy Park
With the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil War began to be more about black freedom.
Origins of Seneca Village - Cynthia Copland commentary from 2008-01-21T10:10:10
Formation of enclaves origins of Seneca Village, formerly in Central Park.
Commentary by Cynthia Copland
Pierre Toussaint - description from 2008-01-21T10:10:04
263 Mulberry St
In 1996, Pope John Paul II bestowed the title of “Venerable” on Pierre Toussaint. Two years later, Pierre Toussaint Square was named for him.
Ralph Ellison Memorial - description from 2008-01-21T10:07:54
Riverside Park on 150th Street, Manhattan
The Ralph Ellison Memorial at Riverside Park on 150th Street, Manhattan New York is not your typical African American landmark in New York City.
Rikers Island - description from 2008-01-21T10:07:50
Rikers Island
On March 5, 1864, a crowd of over 10,000 New Yorkers watched in awe as 1,000 well-disciplined Union army troops left Rikers Island and marched west to the Hudson River, their d...
Rikers Island - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:07:30
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Rikers Island.
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Rocky Point - description from 2008-01-21T10:07:22
Rocky Point
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 an...
Samuel Ballton - description from 2008-01-21T10:07
Samuel Ballton
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 c...
Sandy Ground - description from 2008-01-21T10:06
1538 Woodrow Road
On February 23, 1828, Captain John Jackson purchased land in a place known as Sandy Ground on what is now Staten Island.
Schomburg Library - description from 2008-01-21T10:05:37
515 Malcolm X Blvd
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture holds one of the best library collections focused on black history in the world.
Schomberg Library - Kellie Jones commentary from 2008-01-21T10:05
Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Columbia University, discusses the Shomberg Library.
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Seneca Village- description from 2008-01-21T10:04:45
Central Park near West Drive & 85th Street
As a community of free black property owners, Seneca Village was unique in its day.
Seneca Village Community - Cynthia Copland commentary from 2008-01-21T10:04:35
Seneca Village Community
Commentary by Cynthia Copland
Seneca Village - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T10:04:30
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Seneca Village.
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Shiloh Presbyterian Church - description from 2008-01-21T10:04:02
409 W. 141st St.
The Shiloh Presbyterian Church boasts a long tradition of radical black leadership.
Slave Revolt of 1712 - description from 2008-01-21T10:02:28
Maiden Place
In the early 1700s, New York had one of the largest slave populations of any of England’s colonies.
Sojourner Truth - description from 2008-01-21T10:01:38
74 Canal Street
In 1797, a baby girl named Isabella was born in upstate New York.
St. Philip's Episcopalian Church - description from 2008-01-21T10:00:51
31 Centre Street
The congregation of St. Philip’s has roots that reach back to 1704.
St. Philip's Episcopalian Church - Kellie Jones commentary from 2008-01-21T10:00
Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Columbia University, discusses St. Philip's Episcopalian Church.
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Studio Museum in Harlem - description from 2008-01-21T09:59:59
144 W 125th St
From before this nation was formed, Africans and their descendants have contributed enormously to American culture.
Studio Museum in Harlem - Kellie Jones commentary from 2008-01-21T09:59:25
Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Columbia University, discusses The Studio Museum in Harlem.
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Tappan Brothers - description from 2008-01-21T09:59:07
122 Pearl Street
Lewis and Arthur Tappan were brothers who earned a fortune importing silk from Asia.
Gideon and the Great Dock - description from 2008-01-21T09:57:31
Pearl St. between Whitehall Street and Broad Street
On an August day in 1664, the Dutch ship Gideon reached the Great Dock in New Amsterdam.
Manhattan Company - description from 2008-01-21T09:56:45
40 Wall Street
The Manhattan Company was formed to bring fresh water to New Yorkers. Or at least that was its stated purpose.
Slave Market - description from 2008-01-21T09:53:17
Wall Street and Water Street
In 1711, New York was growing quickly, and the growing needs of the city were often supplied by slave labor.
Theodore Wright House - description from 2008-01-21T09:52:32
235 W. Broadway
One day in the mid-1800s, 28 men, women, and children snuck into New York City.
Tontine Coffeehouse - description from 2008-01-21T09:51:42
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.
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Wall Street - description from 2008-01-21T09:48:42
One Wall Street
A gang of black men labored as long as daylight allowed, digging a three-foot-deep trench from the East River all the way across Manhattan Island to the Hudson River.
Wall Street - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T09:47:21
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Wall Street.
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Weeksville - description from 2008-01-21T09:38:41
1698 Bergen Street
Far from the bustle and racism of Manhattan, on what was then the outskirts of Brooklyn, free blacks built a community called Weeksville.
Weeksville - Kenneth Jackson commentary from 2008-01-21T09:30
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University, discusses Weeksville.
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West Indian Day Parade - description from 2008-01-21T09:27:54
Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue, Brooklyn
Many slaves brought the tradition of African outdoor ceremonies to the Caribbean. However, once enslaved, they were prohibited from holding public ...
William Floyd Estate - Lynda Day commentary from 2008-01-21T09:25:05
245 Park Drive, Mastic Beach, Long Island
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 ...
William Floyd Estate - description from 2008-01-21T09:25
245 Park Drive, Mastic Beach, Long Island
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 ...
William Floyd Estate - description from 2008-01-21T09:25
245 Park Drive, Mastic Beach, Long Island
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 ...