CBH Talk | The Remarkable Story of Brooklyn’s Nineteenth Century Free Black Communities
The widely held belief that New York was one of the first states to abolish slavery is a myth. In fact, New York was almost the last Northern state to put slavery to an end. Brooklynites, with their farming economy, were especially vested in the perpetuation of enslaved labor. That legacy is still with us today, embedded in Brooklyn streets. No less than 82 are named after families that held slaves.
Against this backdrop, historian Prithi Kanakamedala explores Brooklyn’s communities of free Blacks and their radical anti-slavery vision. Her book, Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough, looks at how these Black men and women resisted the systems of racism in the decades following the Revolution and leading up to the Civil War, risking their own safety to build a Brooklyn based on equality.
Kanakamedala lays out the depth and scope of their activism, which spanned institution-building, fundraising, entrepreneurship, investment in property. In doing so she centers Brooklyn's place in the history of social justice movements. As she points out, long before becoming a borough Brooklyn was our nation's third largest city, and focusing the narrative on the justice-oriented activities of Black communities in DUMBO, Fort Greene, and Williamsburg is foundational to Brooklyn’s identity today.
Join her as she uncovers the ghosts of New York’s Black activist past, in a conversation led by by Dominique Jean-Louis, Chief Historian at Center for Brooklyn History.
Participants
Prithi Kanakamedala is Professor of History at Bronx Community College CUNY. She also teaches at CUNY Graduate Center, where she is the inaugural faculty coordinator of the Public Scholarship Practice Space. As a public historian, Prithi has worked with a range of cultural organizations including Danspace Project Inc, Place Matters/ City Lore, Brooklyn Historical Society (now Center for Brooklyn History at Brooklyn Public Library), and Weeksville Heritage Center. Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough (NYU Press, 2024) is her first book.
Dominique Jean-Louis, Ph.D is the Chief Historian of the Center for Brooklyn History at the Brooklyn Public Library. Previously, she held the position of Associate Curator of History Exhibitions at New-York Historical Society, where she co-curated Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow (2018), Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass' America (2022), and is the co-curator of Black Dolls (2022). She is a former Mellon Predoctoral Fellow in Museum Education at the Museum of the City of New York, where she also contributed to the flagship exhibition New York at Its Core (2016). She received her B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from Columbia University, and her Ph.D in US History from New York University, with her doctoral research focusing on race, education, and immigration in post-Civil Rights Era Brooklyn. Dominique regularly writes and lectures on Blackness in America, schools and education, and New York City history.
The widely held belief that New York was one of the first states to abolish slavery is a myth. In fact, New York was almost the last Northern state to put slavery to an end. Brooklynites, with their farming economy, were especially vested in the perpetuation of enslaved labor. That legacy is still with us today, embedded in Brooklyn streets. No less than 82 are named after families that held slaves.
Against this backdrop, historian Prithi Kanakamedala explores Brooklyn’s communities of free Blacks and their radical anti-slavery vision. Her book, Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough, looks at how these Black men and women resisted the systems of racism in the decades following the Revolution and leading up to the Civil War, risking their own safety to build a Brooklyn based on equality.
Kanakamedala lays out the depth and scope of their activism, which spanned institution-building, fundraising, entrepreneurship, investment in property. In doing so she centers Brooklyn's place in the history of social justice movements. As she points out, long before becoming a borough Brooklyn was our nation's third largest city, and focusing the narrative on the justice-oriented activities of Black communities in DUMBO, Fort Greene, and Williamsburg is foundational to Brooklyn’s identity today.
Join her as she uncovers the ghosts of New York’s Black activist past, in a conversation led by by Dominique Jean-Louis, Chief Historian at Center for Brooklyn History.
Participants
Prithi Kanakamedala is Professor of History at Bronx Community College CUNY. She also teaches at CUNY Graduate Center, where she is the inaugural faculty coordinator of the Public Scholarship Practice Space. As a public historian, Prithi has worked with a range of cultural organizations including Danspace Project Inc, Place Matters/ City Lore, Brooklyn Historical Society (now Center for Brooklyn History at Brooklyn Public Library), and Weeksville Heritage Center. Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough (NYU Press, 2024) is her first book.
Dominique Jean-Louis, Ph.D is the Chief Historian of the Center for Brooklyn History at the Brooklyn Public Library. Previously, she held the position of Associate Curator of History Exhibitions at New-York Historical Society, where she co-curated Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow (2018), Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass' America (2022), and is the co-curator of Black Dolls (2022). She is a former Mellon Predoctoral Fellow in Museum Education at the Museum of the City of New York, where she also contributed to the flagship exhibition New York at Its Core (2016). She received her B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from Columbia University, and her Ph.D in US History from New York University, with her doctoral research focusing on race, education, and immigration in post-Civil Rights Era Brooklyn. Dominique regularly writes and lectures on Blackness in America, schools and education, and New York City history.
Brooklyn Public Library - Center for Brooklyn History MM/DD/YYYY 60