These days I ask myself: What does it mean to be a free black woman in America today?
In 1838, the free black community of Weeksville was founded by James Weeks, a former slave from North Carolina, and a group of black land investors and political activists. The Hunterfly Houses are what remain of the village today. In its heyday during the 1850s, Weeksville had more than 500 residents from all over the East Coast, including two native-born Africans. Weeksville had its own churches, a school (“Colored School No. 2”, now P.S. 243), a cemetery, an old age home, and one of the first independent African-American newspapers. Colored School No. 2 was the first school in the U.S. to integrate both its staff and its students. They accomplished all this to realize their desire for land and exercise their full rights of American citizenship even if the state put numerous obstacles in their way to deny them.
Were the people of Weeksville were on to something?
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab