African American History Tour

This building served as the headquarters of the NAACP (founded Feb. 12, 1909) and The Crisis magazine from 1914 until the mid-1920s, when they moved up the block to the no-longer-extant 69 Fifth Avenue (some evidence suggests as early as 1923, while other evidence indicates as late as 1926 – see also here), and DuBois & Dill Publishing, which published the first magazine for African American youth. This was a time of extraordinary growth, accomplishment, and challenges for both the NAACP and its affiliated The Crisis magazine, funded and edited by W.E.B. DuBois. Both were focused on the epidemic of lynchings of African-Americans and race-based violence taking place at the time, discrimination in voting, housing, and employment faced by African-Americans, and the proliferation of demeaning, derogatory, and dehumanizing representations of African Americans in media such as the film The Birth of A Nation. At the same time their tenancy here coincided with and reflected a flowering of Black culture with the Harlem Renaissance, and growing African American aspirations for greater freedom and opportunity emanating in part from participation in World War I and the principles of democracy and self- determination which were the premise for the United States’ joining the conflict, and the Great Migration which began at this time and saw more African Americans living in the North, Midwest, and West, where they encountered both new opportunities and new obstacles.

This area was home to several sites connected to significant developments in African American history, including civil rights leaders and organizations, musicians, and writers. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.