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.
Watts, one of the most famous neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California, is located approximately seven miles southeast of downtown. Originally part of the Rancho La Tajauta Mexican land grant, Watts was incorporated in 1903 and began to grow as a community in 1907, when the … Read MoreWatts, California (1903- )
Established in 1942, Koinonia is a collective farm in Sumter County, Georgia that supports interracialism as an element of Christian community values. Inspired by both his Christian faith and his training in agriculture at the University of Georgia, founder Clarence Jordan believed that poor white … Read MoreKoinonia Farm (1942- )
The Great Migration brought many African Americans to Los Angeles in the 1920s. Housing covenants and other forms of discrimination followed them and forced the creation of a black community along South Central Avenue. For decades, the most popular spot in this district (and all … Read MoreDunbar Hotel (1928- )
Beginning in the 1920s during the large scale African American migration to Chicago and other major American cities, Brown-Mitcheson, a Marinette, Wisconsin lumber company, began to recruit black workers through the Chicago Defender to land it owned on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The company offered cut-over … Read MoreElmwood, Michigan (1926-1929)
The area now known as Congo Square, located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, emerged as an important public activity locale during the early decades of the French colonial period. Beginning around the middle of the eighteenth century, the Place des Nègres, as it … Read MoreCongo Square, New Orleans, Louisiana
Camp Atwater is a cultural, educational, and recreational camp designed for the children of African American professionals. The camp, founded in 1921 by Dr. William De Berry, was located in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Initially named St. John’s Camp, in 1926 the name was officially changed … Read MoreCamp Atwater (1921- )
Highland Beach, Maryland, the oldest of the major black resort towns, was founded along the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in 1893 by Charles and Laura Douglass. Charles Douglass was the son of prominent abolitionist and nineteenth-century civil rights activist Frederick Douglass. Major Charles Douglass, … Read MoreHighland Beach, Maryland (1893- )
Idlewild, Michigan, was one of the leading African American resorts in the era of Jim Crow segregation. White land developers marketed Idlewild as an all-Negro resort town in Lake County, Michigan, about 300 miles northwest of Chicago, Illinois and 250 miles north of Detroit, through … Read MoreIdlewild, Michigan (1912- )
Weeksville was a nineteenth century free black community located in what is now the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, New York. It is remembered today as a historic site for its community programs, urban employment opportunities, and the promotion of racial respectability. In 1838, only 11 … Read MoreWeeksville, New York (1838- )
The Desire Housing Project was a Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) managed project located in the city’s largely African American Desire neighborhood, part of the Upper Ninth Ward. Authorized by the Housing Act of 1949, construction of the Desire project began in 1949 and … Read MoreDesire Housing Project, New Orleans, Louisiana (1956-2001)
