The NYC Black History 50
In January 2019, I was researching early New York City history when I discovered reports of a shocking and tragic incident at Foley Square in 1741. In that year, as fears of a slave uprising swept over the young city, enslaved Africans and white co-conspirators were blamed for a series of fires in lower New York. At that time, New York had more enslaved people living in it than any city in North America, except for Charleston, South Carolina.
As hysteria gripped the city, a cursory, rigged trial was held and 34 people were brought to the execution grounds in Foley Square. There, 17 enslaved Africans and four white co-conspirators were hanged, and shockingly, 13 enslaved Africans were burned at the stake in front of crowds. An additional 70 enslaved Africans were shipped to the Caribbean and sold.
How is that I, a 25-year resident of New York City and someone who is uniquely invested in the city’s history, did not know about this incident until 2019? How is it that most American school children learn about the Salem Witch Trials, but not this incident?
In an attempt to fill in the gaps, I spent the next few months researching an array of historical sights important to understanding Black history in New York City. In addition to the terrible incidents lost to time, I studied stories of empowerment I had never encountered before, such as the historic free Black communities in Sandy Ground, Staten Island, and the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn. I studied the African Burial Ground in lower New York, where in 1991 excavations of a federal building exposed a massive burial ground of thousands of free and enslaved Africans under the streets. I read Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison and The New York Historical Society’s landmark Slavery In New York book. As Black History Month approached that year, I plotted all of the points on a map and created a 42-mile running route for myself across all five boroughs, so I could visit each of these sights in a single day of running. Fox 5 TV ended up following me for some time and produced this story.
1967 photo of children playing in Sandy Ground
I’ve run long distances to historical events for about five years now. The idea is to load my mind on history for weeks before a long run, then set off on a long-distance journey through time, where I can contemplate events I’m running to and lose myself in thought as the miles take their toll.
As word spread on social media, a range of NYC monuments and organizations asked to be involved if I chose to run the route again. And thus, the NYC Black History 50 was born, an all-day historical running experience on Saturday, Feb. 12, taking runners to Black history sights throughout the five boroughs.
Over the course of the last two years, I reached out to a variety of NYC monuments and organizations relevant to Black history and running to build the event and pulled together a group of individuals who would lend their voices to the process of selecting sights for the run. My original 42-mile route was transformed to more than 50 miles during this process, and a variety of new themes were added to the run.
The Team at Black Men Run (New York City Chapter) pointed toward the Sankofa African Burial Ground in East New York, and we added several additional burial grounds throughout the city to the run, building in a deep sense of reverence for the forgotten free and enslaved Blacks and Africans who built this city. The team at the Rossville AME Church in Sandy Ground had a very different story to tell, one of empowerment and community, and sights like the Lewis Latimer House Museum were added.
Today, we have nearly 100 runners from throughout the Tri-state area signed up for this run. Though some will run the full distance of more than 50 miles, many will run 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon distances as guides from City Running Tours, one of our partners, take runners to key sights for Black history throughout the five boroughs.
During the NYC Black History 50, runners will participate in live historical experiences at certain sights. In Brooklyn, runners will visit Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, which was once led by famed preacher, social reformer and abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, and was a stop on the Underground Railroad. After visiting the historic sanctuary, runners will visit the basement area under the sanctuary, where enslaved peoples were hidden on their journeys north.
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn
Underground Railroad Site, Basement
In lieu of ticket sales, runners will join a Go Fund Me to support the Rossville AME Church at Sandy Ground, stewards of the oldest continuously inhabited free Black community in the U.S., whose history is fading. To join the Go Fund Me visit https://gofund.me/8cb2cc61. The learn more about the race, sign up for our webinar on Monday, Feb. 7 at 3:30 pm ET/12:30 pm PT. You can join the webinar via this Zoom Webinar Link.
Todd is a partner and managing director in the New York office of Allison+Partners who specializes in technology and healthcare communications. He is one of the agency’s principal speechwriters, media trainers and thought leadership specialists, and regularly authors bylines on behalf of leading CEOs and business personalities. When not working in communications, Todd is an endurance athlete whose ultrarunning has been profiled in Runner’s World and media outlets throughout the world. He lives with his wife and teenage son in New York City.
