Weeksville in Brooklyn - Black History of 19th Century New York

Brooklyn, New York has one of the most rich and varied stories to tell when it comes to black history. Brooklyn certainly played an important role in the black power movement of the 1960s and 70s. Brooklyn has been a huge part of the hip hop movement from the 1980s to today as much of hip hop's history is in and of Brooklyn. Brooklyn has even had a major role in black progress in the Hollywood scene as Brooklyn's Spike Lee is the most successful black director of all time and most of his films are set in Brooklyn.

There's no shortage of black history in Brooklyn. But of all the important events that have taken place here in the history of American black culture I think the story of the Weeksville Heritage Center stands out the most.

The Weeksville Heritage Center in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn played a big role in the black history of New York City in the 19th century.

Slavery had just been abolished 11 years earlier in New York state when James Weeks bought a plot of land from Henry C. Thompson in central Brooklyn. Weeks and Thompson were both black men. The community that developed on this plot of land was named after Weeks and thus was known as Weekville. Weeksville became home to a burgeoning group of professional blacks including ministers and teachers. Among these professionals was the first black police officer and the first female black physician in New York City.

Weeksville had it own churches and schools. It also had it's own old age home, an orphanage, and one of the first black newspapers in the country which was called Freedman's Torchlight. Weeksville was a refuge for many blacks who fled Manhattan during the violent New York Draft riots of 1863.

This community of Weeksville was very active in the abolitionist movement of the 19^th century. The abolitionist movement is perhaps the largest cause of the Civil War as the 11 southern states that still had legal slavery in 1861 tried to secede from the anti slavery north to become a separate country called the Confederacy of America.

Today some of the original houses remain from the communities settled in the 1830's that included many former slaves. The houses are New York City landmarks and are on the National Registry of Historic Places in the U.S. Weeksville Heritage Center currently provides programming that interprets history through art, literacy, technology, and the environment.

The Weeksville Heritage Center is located at 1698 Bergen street, between Buffalo and Rochester Avenues in Brooklyn, New York.