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.
Empire, Wyoming was an African American community founded in 1908 by Charles and Rosetta Speese along with three of Charles’ brothers—John, Joseph and Radford—and their families. John’s brother-in-law, Baseman Taylor, and relative, Otis Taylor, also joined the settlement. The families migrated from Nebraska. With the … Read MoreEmpire, Wyoming (1908-1930)
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 developer Robertson 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 … 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- )
The Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center is a government funded medical clinic that provides primary care services located in the heart of the Central District of Seattle, Washington. It was founded by Leon “Valentine” Hobbs in 1968 and further developed through Seattle Black Panther Party community services program. The Party saw … Read MoreCarolyn Downs Family Medical Center (1968- )
Constructed in 1910 with a grant from Andrew Carnegie’s library development program, the Carnegie Library of Mound Bayou, Mississippi was the first free public library intended for African Americans in the state of Mississippi and one of the first African American public libraries in the country. It served … Read MoreCarnegie Library, Mound Bayou, Mississippi (1910-1935)
The East Henry Street Carnegie Library is a branch of the Live Oak Public Libraries in Savannah, Georgia. It originally opened in 1914 as the Colored Carnegie Library, one of twelve segregated public libraries in the south funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and one of the earliest African … Read MoreEast Henry Street Carnegie Library, Savannah, Georgia (1914- )
In the early 1900s, the Pecos Valley Region of Southeastern New Mexico Territory experienced an economic boom because of an influx of settlers into the area. African American families were among those settlers. They built Blackdom, the only all-black town in the territory and situated … Read MoreBlackdom, New Mexico (1903-1930)
