Modern day Brooklyn is a refuge for hipsters running from the breakneck rents of SoHo, Chelsea, TriBeCa and the Lower East Side. Brooklyn has always been a refuge of sorts for Manhattanite outcasts. During the NYC race riots of the 1860s Brooklyn was a safe haven for freed Blacks trying to escape the murderous white immigrant gangs of New York.
The neighborhood those Blacks came to was called Weeksville. What we know today as Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and Ocean Hill Brownsville is where this Black township was situated.
Weeksville is more than 150 years old and predates the Harlem renaissance by 75 years. The truth being excavated in Weeksville is that you have been here before. And you will always be here.
Stay logged on to dP.com and I’ll keep you posted for the event happening at the Weeksville Heritage Center. Happy Juneteenth Internets.