Black Gotham Stories

Leisure Time

Like other New Yorkers, blacks enjoyed strolling up and down Broadway, taking in the sights and pausing to admire buildings like Alexander Stewart's grand, new deparment store.  But they had a Broadway of their own.  In an 1855 column in Frederick Douglass' Paper, columnist William J. Wilson wrote under the penname Ethiop to describe with a strange mixture of pride and repulsion the black community’s entertainment district, Church Street, “alias (black) Broadway.”  Although he delighted in black New Yorkers sense of fashion, he frowned at its excesses.  Above all, he worried that an appetite for luxury would result in the frittering away of energies needed for more serious endeavors. Just as damaging was the possibility that white observers might deem such manifestations of black leisure proof of the racial stereotypes they held.  Ethiop and his friends counseled a course of action similar to that suggested by the Colored American newspaper some fifteen years earlier that “at all times, but especially in the present crisis it behooves us to place the most careful watch over our own demeanor, living down, by consistent and virtuous conduct, every charge which may be brought against us.”

Broadway

Broadway

The black elite wanted no part of the street culture that could be found on Church Street.  When they did step out, it was most often to attend cultural events that brought them together with their white counterparts.  It was here, they believed, that class would trump race.  In his Frederick Douglass’ Paper contributions, columnist Philiip Bell writing under the penname of Cosmopolite enumerated the many instances when he and his friends happily mixed with members of the white elite: lectures at the Mercantile Library, opera at the Academy of Music; the contemplation of paintings at Goupil’s art gallery.

Academy of Music

Academy of Music

 

Mercantile Library Association

 

Yet the elite could never be sure how they would be received.  James McCune Smith freely visited Niblo’s, one of the fanciest spots in town for fine dining and sophisticated entertainment.  But prominent community leader, Reverend J. C. Pennington, was denied entrance to attend a lecture there.

Niblo's Garden, Corner of Broadway and Prince Street, 1828; Niblo's Garden and Theaetre, 1845

Niblo's Garden

When New York’s Crystal Palace, built after the London original, opened in 1853, it became a popular tourist destination.  Yet black New Yorkers were somtimes turned away.  In her memoir, Maritcha recalled that “about 1856, mother took her flock to visit Crystal Palace, located somewhat above where the Grand Central depot now stands.”  She then added somewhat cryptically: “For this outing the preparations were very extensive.”  Was Maritcha merely referring to the burdens of a long trip with children?  Or does her comment betray the family’s anxiety over possible rejection and the need to prepare for whatever might happen: be respectable, dress well, behave with impeccable manners, and don’t break down if admission is denied.

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace