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20 E. 127th St., Harlem, Manhattan Author, poet, playwright and renowned social activist Langston Hughes was one of the most influential leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. For 20 years, Hughes resided at 20 E. 127th St., occupying the top floor of a three-story brownstone, where he penned I Wonder As I Wander, A Pictorial History of the Negro in America and Black Nativity—some of his most celebrated literary works. In 2019, his former home was one of 22 sites across the country awarded a National Trust for Historic Preservation grant through the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

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Sandy Ground Historical Inc, Woodrow Road, Staten Island, NY, USA

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1538 Sandy Ground is the oldest occupied African American settlement in the country. Founded in the early 19th century by free Blacks from New York, Maryland and Delaware, the community was a significant stop on the Underground Railroad. Back then, Sandy Ground flourished by harvesting oysters and farming. Today, the neighborhood is home to 10 Black families who are descendants of the original settlers and a museum that preserves the area’s history through exhibitions, art, photography and cultural events.

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Like Seneca Village, Weeksville was a neighborhood that was founded by free African Americans, situated in modern-day Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Weeksville was founded in 1838 by James Weeks, an African-American longshoreman who bought land from Henry C. Thompson, a free African American land investor. The land was previously owned by an heir of John Lefferts, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Weeksville was home to two churches, a school (Colored School No. 2), and a cemetery, as well as the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum. Weeksville also had one of the first African-American newspapers called the Freedman’s Torchlight and served as headquarters of the African Civilization Society. Additionally, the area was a refuge for many African Americans who left Manhattan during the 1863 Draft Riots.

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African Burial Ground National Monument, Broadway, New York, NY, USA

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The African Burial Ground National Monument is found in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan that contains the remains of more than 419 Africans from the 17th and 18th centuries. It is estimated that there were as many as 10,000 to 20,000 burials in the 1700s, and it is considered New York’s oldest African-American cemetery. In the 1600s, the Dutch West India Company brought over slaves from Angola, Congo, and Guinea, and by the mid-17th century, a village called the Land of the Blacks saw 30 African-owned farms in modern-day Washington Square Park. It was estimated that 42% of households in New York had slaves, which eventually totaled about 2,500 by 1740. The site was initially labeled on old maps as “Negro Burying Ground,” and the first recorded burials for people of African descent occurred in 1712, but it is speculated that the burial ground was in use two decades earlier. George H.W. Bush signed a law to redesign the area and to install a $3 million memorial, which was dedicated in 2007 to commemorate the role of Africans and African Americans through New York City’s history.