Black Legacy

Discover the complete Black history of New York—from 1609 to the present—by the award-winning author of Breaking the Chains and Black Indians. For readers 12 and up.

Includes a new intro and last chapter with insights on modern-day movements like Black Lives Matter, plus 50+ historical maps, illustrations, and photos. Essential for NY teachers, librarians and teens.

From the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam in 1609 to the Harlem Renaissance to the impact of #BLM, here is a concise and newly updated history of Black Americans in New York for readers 12 and up. Black Legacy reasserts the essential work of teacher and historian William Loren Katz, who was committed to documenting and uplifting the stories of Black Americans’ courage and creativity, resilience and rebellion, especially for younger readers. A new introduction gives context to Katz's “full tableau of Black accomplishments and aspirations,” and a new chapter brings the book up to the present day, considering the changing economic, cultural and political influences on Black New Yorkers. Black Legacy includes, chronologically,

• Black politicians and poets, abolitionists and athletes and activists, and the first Black children to attend public schools;
• Sojourner Truth, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and others who fought for Black freedom;
• Shirley Chisholm, Madame C.J. Walker, NY's first Black mayor David Dinkins and many other businesspeople and politicians who brought dignity through their work toward equality;
• and the Black history of Seneca Village and Weeksville, the Savoy and Cotton clubs of the Jazz Age, Harlem Hospital where Martin Luther King Jr. nearly died, the African burial site at Trinity Church, and so much more.