#Free Blacks

Weeksville, Brooklyn was a pioneering, self-sufficient Black community in 19th-century New York. The neighborhood was established only 11 years after slavery ended in the state. Tucked between Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and Brownsville, it was founded by African Americans who built their own schools, businesses, insurance networks, and social institutions. It became a place of safety and self-determination long before the Civil Rights Movement.

2/17/26 I grew up near Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn and did not realize I was steps away from Weeksville, one of the most important free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. Freedom was organized. Freedom was strategic. Freedom was local. 🟤 #Weeksville #BlackHistory #UndergroundRailroad #BrooklynHistory #KnowYourHistory

Uncover the untold stories of Black leadership in Wilmington before the 1898 coup. Learn about the visionaries who shaped history. #BlackHistory #Wilmington1898 #BlackExcellence #HistoryMatters

Episode 3: “Schomburg Center” Location: “Harlem, NY” #blackhistory #harlem #blackexecellence

It may not be the official black history month but we’re still celebrating over here!!!!! Today I want to highlight @weeksvilleheritagecenter. Weeksville is one of the largest free black communities in pre civil war America. Weeksville Heritage Center is a historical site that uses art and education to document and persevere Weeksville history and culture. The center provides tours and many events throughout the year to celebrate our culture and come together as a community. #weeksville #blackhistory #blackculture

Weeksville: America ki sab se bari azad siyah-faam communities ki dastan aur tabnak mustaqbil ​Weeksville, Civil War se pehle ke America mein azad siyah-faamon (free Black people) ki sab se bari bastiyon mein se ek thi. Agarchay aaj bhi ye is shehar ka ek aham satoon hai, lekin aksar is ki tareekh ko nazar-andaz kiya gaya hai. Ye short film Weeksville ki bharpoor aur zinda tareekh ke sath sath is ke mutaharrik mustaqbil ki kahani bayan karti hai. Weeksville: The Legacy of One of America’s Largest Free Black Communities ​Weeksville stood as one of the most prominent free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. While it remains a foundational cornerstone of the city today, its historical significance has frequently been overlooked. This short film captures the essence of Weeksville’s rich, living history and highlights its vibrant path toward the future. #Weeksville #BlackHistory #NYC #ShortFilm #LivingHistory

Black History is not separate from the American story. In Illinois, Black freemen and women built protection networks, founded self-governing towns, and widened the meaning of citizenship long before the nation resolved its contradictions. Rocky Fork. Brooklyn. New Philadelphia. This is American constitutional development. Who decides which democracy stories get remembered? #blackhistorymonth #localhistory #illinois #placebasedlearning #blackhistoryisamericanhistory

This month, Revolutionary Spaces is spotlighting the relationship between race, slavery, and Christianity at the Old South Meeting House. Learn about the history of Black congregants and how community was formed amid racism and oppression through primary sources, visuals, and a letter writing exercise. Plan your visit now using the link in our bio. . . . #BlackHistory #BlackHistoryMonth #BostonHistory #OldSouthMeetingHouse

Before there was a “Black Wall Street,” there was Brooklyn, New York’s Weeksville, a community in present-day Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant built by free Black people, for free Black people, in 1848. And Mayor Zohran Mamdani is helping make sure that legacy is preserved and highlighted in the tapestry of New York City. “Weeksville reminds us that Black New Yorkers built this city — not just its neighborhoods, but its spirit. This piece honors the generations who fought to preserve that history,” Mayor Mamdani told theGrio. “And it challenges us to do our part today: to build a future where the people who made this city what it is can afford to call it home.” Today, theGrio exclusively debuts “A Dignified Life: The Story of Weeksville,” a new short film detailing the restoration and history of the Hunterfly Road Houses at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn by the NYC Mayor’s Office. Watch the full documentary #OnTheGrio or hit the link in our IG stories!

Join us at the Wooder Cooler to chat about how Philadelphia is honoring its Black history during the semiquincentennial. Inquirer arts and lifestyle columnist Elizabeth Wellington shares stories about the impact of free African societies in Philadelphia — including Mother Bethel Church and Cheney University. Watch the full episode with Elizabeth at our link in bio. 📹 by Ariane Datil and Gabe Coffey / Staff 📹 additional video provided by Philadelphia Historic District ✂️ by Ariane Datil / Staff 🧰 by Astrid Rodrigues / Staff 📝 by Elizabeth Wellington / Staff 📸 by Inquirer Staff Photographers, Associated Press, The Library of Congress, John W. Mosley Photograph Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia Cheyney University, Harper’s Weekly

When historians chronicle the story of Perry Hall in Baltimore County, they usually begin and end with the plantation that towers over the sprawling suburb, and the man credited for spreading Methodism in Maryland who lived within its gates. But the history of Perry Hall is bigger than Harry Dorsey Gough and his Perry Hall Mansion. It also runs through families with the names Wicks, Jones, Conway and Harvey. A pair of Wicks brothers bought 16 acres for a farm on Cross Road in 1855, a time when most white landowners refused to sell property to Black families. James Harvey, who still lives on Cross Road, descends from those first Black people to own property in Perry Hall. The surnames changed with marriages, but the family remained the same. The Black community laid the first floorboards 177 years ago for Dowden Chapel, a small, wooden structure off Ridge Road, about 3 miles from the Cross Road homesteads. Here, enslaved and free Black residents of the area worshipped, attended Sunday school, and offered sanctuary to freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad. The cemetery where generations of Conways were buried remains behind the chapel, its headstones bent and some of their inscriptions illegible. Link in bio to read more. Article by Rona Kobell. Video by Krishna Sharma. #maryland #baltimorecounty #history

📚Black history is in session! 📚 Let’s talk about New Philadelphia — because some places don’t wait for freedom to arrive. They build it. Brick by brick. Breath by breath. One liberated body at a time. In the 1830s, before emancipation was even a rumor, a man named Free Frank McWorter — born enslaved, denied humanity, denied possibility — mined saltpeter, saved every coin he could, and bought his own freedom. Then he bought his wife’s. Then his children’s. Then his grandchildren’s. Liberation wasn’t theoretical to him. It was a ledger. A strategy. A mission. And with that same relentless clarity, he founded New Philadelphia — the first town in this country legally platted and registered by a Black man. A place where Black families could own land, build homes, plant futures, and walk through their days without asking permission to exist. This wasn’t symbolic. This was infrastructure. A multiracial town where Black farmers, Black craftsmen, and Black families shaped a community in a nation that still considered them property. A place where freedom wasn’t a promise — it was a practice. New Philadelphia became a stop on the Underground Railroad. A safe crossing. A quiet harbor. A reminder that even in the shadow of slavery, Black people were creating worlds that defied the logic of the time. And when the railroad bypassed the town — a familiar tactic used to starve Black communities out of existence — New Philadelphia didn’t vanish. Its people carried the legacy forward. Its story refused to die. Its blueprint still whispers: we were building liberation long before the country admitted we deserved it. New Philadelphia isn’t just a historic site. It’s a testament to Black ingenuity, Black strategy, and Black self‑determination — a reminder that our ancestors didn’t wait for freedom to be granted. They engineered it. 🖤✨🏞️ #NewPhiladelphia #FreeFrankMcWorter #BlackHistory #UnsungLandmarks #BlackExcellence✊🏾