Special Virtual Tour: Reclaiming Black Spaces

In honor of Black History Month, we’re highlighting stories of how Black and African Americans shaped Lower Manhattan as they made homes, businesses, and communities in this special virtual tour adapted from our popular Reclaiming Black Spaces program on February 27.

Who and where were the communities that drew Black New Yorkers to Lower Manhattan, and how were their experiences shaped by migration? How did those communities create a sense of home, and how did they resist the racism they faced?

From the story of Sebastian de Britto, one of the first Black residents of the area in the 1640s, to Studio We, a musician’s collective in the 1970s, we’ll look at windows into the past that expand the history of today’s Lower East Side.