The following are short descriptions of the places which have contributed to the shaping of African American history. These encyclopedia entries serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources. For additional information please consult the print or website sources cited in the entry.
Campbell College, a now-defunct AME college in Mississippi, was founded in 1890 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of one of its bishops, Jabez Pitt Campbell. The college was originally located about one mile from the center of Vicksburg, Mississippi in … Read MoreCampbell College (1890-1964)
Abiel Smith School Image Ownership: Public domain The Abiel Smith School, originally founded in 1798 by African American parents in the Boston, Massachusetts community, was an institution for free African American students. It became known as the Abiel Smith School in 1815 after Abiel Smith, a wealthy white … Read MoreAbiel Smith School (1798-1855)
Mary Holmes College, ca. 1910 Image Ownership: Public domain Mary Holmes College of West Point, Mississippi, initially named Mary Holmes Seminary, was founded in 1892 by the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church with the purpose of educating black girls from primary grades to high school. The school was … Read MoreMary Holmes College (1892-2005)
The town of Pinhook, Missouri was founded in 1927, by a group of black sharecroppers from the surrounding area. The town, about ten miles west of the main channel of the Mississippi River, took its name for a nearby ridge that resembled the tip of a pinhook. These new … Read MorePinhook, Missouri (1927-2011)
Located in the Sandhills of Cherry County, Nebraska, the settlement of DeWitty was established in 1908 by black homesteaders who constructed housing made of stacked sod. These settlers farmed some of the least hospitable land in the state. The families were spurred to the area by the 1904 … Read MoreDeWitty/Audacious, Nebraska (1908- )
Orange Mound is an African-American neighborhood located in the southeast part of the Memphis, Tennessee. Orange Mound is the first African American community built solely by and for African Americans. Orange Mound was built on the John George Deaderick Plantation. Deaderick purchased 5,000 acres of land … Read MoreOrange Mound, Memphis (1890- )
Beale Street was created in 1841 by entrepreneur and developerRobertson Topp who named it after a forgotten military hero. The original name was Beale Avenue. Its western end primarily housed shops of merchants who traded goods with ships along the Mississippi River while the eastern part developed as … Read MoreBeale Street (1841- )
The Vineyard of Château Hough was founded by Mansfield Frazier in 2010 in Hough, a working-class neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. This vineyard at the intersection of 66th Street and Hough Avenue, is among the first in America to build upon repurposed land. It is also unique as it … Read MoreChâteau Hough (2010- )
Asbury Park, New Jersey’s West Side district—predominantly black and housing 40% of the town’s permanent population—was consumed by rioting from July 4 to July 10 in 1970. At the time of the riot, 30% of the population, 17,000 people approximately, were African American. The town’s huge tourist-resort industry … Read MoreAsbury Park Race Riot (1970)
The city of Camden, New Jersey was the setting for two deadly race-related riots on September 2nd, 1969, and August 20th, 1971. Both riots were in response to alleged police brutality or murder, the victims being an unidentified young black girl, who was beaten by a white police officer in … Read MoreCamden, New Jersey Riots (1969 and 1971)