Our Town

Using this interactive map, students can explore many of the prominent black settlements that have existed throughout history. The approximate location of each historic site is marked, and by clicking on the icon, students will receive an overview of important events, as well as photos and links to outside websites that can give them more insight into what life was like in these towns and communities. Please note that this is not a comprehensive catalog and there are many, many more towns that are not featured here. On their own, students can familiarize themselves with some of these places before engaging with the resources that follow, that highlight just a few of these sites.

Take a trip back in time to see rare colorized footage of Black Wall Street in its heyday, as well as some of the only surviving footage of the community during the bloodiest racial massacre in American history.

For years the racial tension that exploded into unspeakable violence in Oklahoma was only spoken of in whispers by its few survivors but now, almost a hundred years later, their stories are being told and we are forced to interrogate how the media’s misrepresentation of that event may have led to it being hidden away for so long. This video offers a more detailed account of life in Greenwood before, during and after the massacre that changed it forever. By drawing connections to race relations today, it can spark a discussion about how media portrayals of contemporary events have the power to alter the narrative even today.

Although Florida’s town of Rosewood was much more quaint than Oklahoma’s Greenwood, the story of how it was all but wiped off the map- and out of history- by a furious mob, binds them together in history. This video filmed in 1983 is especially important to share because it includes an interview with Minnie Lee Langley who was only 8 at the time of the attack and was one of the only remaining voices left to tell the story of what happened to her birthplace. She has since passed but her memories are preserved here, as well as those of a couple of the white residents of nearby Sumner, where the mob formed. It’s a difficult story to hear but important to honor the legacy of a town that stared down a mob of a hundred in an attempt to protect the homes and lives they cherished.

This article provides some background about life for the residents of Rosewood before the attack, as well as a detailed account of the final days. Through images and excerpts from interviews, students will learn how the surrounding areas responded back then and why it took so long for this story to be uncovered.

It’s hard to imagine that when you’re strolling through New York’s Central Park, you may be walking over the remnants of one of New York’s first community of free blacks. Learn about daily life in Seneca Village, some of its residents, and how it met its end when the decision was made to build Central Park on the lands that Seneca’s people called home. See rare images of Seneca Village and learn about how researchers are using archival information and artifacts to piece together their story.

It’s hard to imagine that when you’re strolling through New York’s Central Park, you may be walking over the remnants of one of New York’s first community of free blacks. Learn about daily life in Seneca Village, some of its residents, and how it met its end when the decision was made to build Central Park on the lands that Seneca’s people called home. See rare images of Seneca Village and learn about how researchers are using archival information and artifacts to piece together their story.

This video features another of New York’s African American settlements – Brooklyn’s Weeksville. We have selected this Viceland video because it does a wonderful job of using a touch of humor to document the daily lives and accomplishments of the town’s residents. Students will see what the wore and what their homes looked like. Documentarian Messiah Rhodes visits the Weeksville Heritage Center which still maintains the historic Hunterfly Houses.