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I know this is a list full of major cities but is anyone willing to do a thread on small size cities with rich black culture? There's quite a few all throughout America that never get the credit they deserve due to their size.
That's good stuff....I was thinking one could probably call it an honorary HBCU. Then I decided to look up the colleges and universities with the largest percentage of Black students to see which ones aren't designated as HBCUs and found out that in 2007, a new designation was created for mostly two-year institutions with at least 40% Black student population: Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI). Maybe some folks here knew this but I didn't.
Another NYC college that may fit the PBI status is this one in Jamaica Queens: https://www.york.cuny.edu/
I know this is a list full of major cities but is anyone willing to do a thread on small size cities with rich black culture? There's quite a few all throughout America that never get the credit they deserve due to their size.
Richmond CA
Savannah GA
Youngstown OH
Watts CA
New Haven CT
East Orange/Lawnside/Newark NJ
Plainfield NJ
Albany GA
Aurora CO
Saginaw/Lansing/Flint/Grand Rapids MI
Charleston SC
Chattanooga TN
Honorable mention:
Brockton MA
some city in West Virginia I can’t remember
Richmond CA
Savannah GA
Youngstown OH
Watts CA
New Haven CT
East Orange/Lawnside/Newark NJ
Plainfield NJ
Albany GA
Aurora CO
Saginaw/Lansing/Flint/Grand Rapids MI
Charleston SC
Chattanooga TN
Honorable mention:
Brockton MA
some city in West Virginia I can’t remember
Off the top of my head
This is where say a city/area like Syracuse is extremely underrated on the history front. Big time underground railroad city: https://pacny.net/freedom_trail/
Harriet Tubman is lived and is buried in the area(Auburn, in which 2 of its 4 first non native settlers were black): https://www.harriettubmanhome.com/
A black inventor of the modern golf tee/2nd black grad of Harvard's dental school was born and raised in the metro area(Oswego): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Franklin_Grant His family came from MD and Oswego played a big part in the UGRR due to being on Lake Ontario, which made it easy to get to Canada and some others just stayed. It has the first public library that allowed black patrons in the country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswego...note-nrhpdoc-2
It is also where the first black Heisman Trophy winner attended college: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Davis (There is a dorm named after him and a couple of statues of him on the Syracuse University campus. There is also a school named after him in Elmira)
I'll stop there, but this could go for other areas in Upstate NY. A quick example, this man born in between Utica and Schenectady and grew up partially in Cooperstown is the first professional black baseball player(when you include the minor leagues): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Fowler
So, Upstate NY in general is very underrated in this regard.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 07-30-2021 at 04:05 PM..
This is where say a city/area like Syracuse is extremely underrated on the history front. Big time underground railroad city: https://pacny.net/freedom_trail/
Harriet Tubman is lived and is buried in the area(Auburn, in which 2 of its 4 first non native settlers were black): https://www.harriettubmanhome.com/
A black inventor of the modern golf tee/2nd black grad of Harvard's dental school was born and raised in the metro area(Oswego): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Franklin_Grant His family came from MD and Oswego played a big part in the UGRR due to being on Lake Ontario, which made it easy to get to Canada and some others just stayed. It has the first public library that allowed black patrons in the country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswego...note-nrhpdoc-2
It is also where the first black Heisman Trophy winner attended college: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Davis (There is a dorm named after him and a couple of statues of him on the Syracuse University campus. There is also a school named after him in Elmira)
I'll stop there, but this could go for other areas in Upstate NY. A quick example, this man born in between Utica and Schenectady and grew up partially in Cooperstown is the first professional black baseball player(when you include the minor leagues): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Fowler
So, Upstate NY in general is very underrated in this regard.
He is buried in the same cemetery as Harriet Tubman, Fort Hill Cemetery. I believe some of his distant relatives still live in the city. It’s SW Quadrant is where the city’s black community is generally concentrated with a few churches and the Booker T. Washington Center as neighborhood institutions. It is about 30-35 minutes west of Syracuse and 45-50 minutes east of Rochester.
On a side note, 2 other founders of Alpha Phi Alpha were from Upstate NY. This preacher’s son born in Rochester and largely raised in Binghamton is one of them: https://www.callisfoundation.org/about/
I’ll stop there, but may drop some more information related to Upstate NY related to sorority founders, the first black mayor of Washington DC, an abolitionist/women’s right activist born enslaved in the Hudson Valley and more later.
And I think Columbus has the largest population of the cities in the state.
In total numbers, yes. That is correct. Columbus is is at 280,000 and Cleveland is at 200,000. But Columbus has a much larger land area.
At the county level, Cuyahoga (Cleveland) and Franklin (Columbus) are almost identical in population, both around 1.2 million. Cuyahoga is around 380,000 blacks to Franklin, which is around 300,000. Then if you factor in surrounding counties, you can add 150,000 for Cleveland and 40,000 for Columbus.
So, it's more like 530,000 blacks within 30 or so miles of Cleveland to 340,000 within 30 miles of Columbus. Then you factor in that a vast majority of blacks in Cleveland (and surrounding areas) are African American and now have been in the region for 80-plus years, it's no comparison between the two.
Columbus' black population has exploded, but it's really been the past 20 years. And the two biggest reasons are 1. Somalis (yes, black. African American? In time, but too new to have an influence yet on the culture). 2. Transplants from the Cleveland area. I'd say that upward of 20 to 25 percent of Columbus' black population can trace their family lineage back to either Somalia or Greater Cleveland within the past 20 years.
With that, Columbus definitely is an upcoming city/area for black influence. But it's still too new. And while the total numbers have surpassed Cincinnati (if you don't include Dayton, which I kind of view Cincinnati/Dayton into one, especially black culture wise), it still doesn't have the history as those SW Ohio cities.
Regardless, Ohio in general is very slept on in black culture. It's like people got this perception it's nothing but corn farmers (maybe mistaking it for Iowa, IDK).
Last edited by ClevelandBrown; 07-30-2021 at 11:36 PM..
I know this is a list full of major cities but is anyone willing to do a thread on small size cities with rich black culture? There's quite a few all throughout America that never get the credit they deserve due to their size.
Steubenville, Ohio.
No city quite like it, IMO. A melting pot of blacks, Italians, Greeks, eastern European immigrants and Applachians. It was/is a wide open city (before Vegas was Vegas, Steubenville was Las Vegas ... a lot of the early dealers/pit bosses in Vegas were brought in from Steubenville).
From a black standpoint, while only 25 percent black and a small town, Steubenville a big city mentality. Gods (5-percenters) run deep there. Black consciousness goes back to the 1800s.
I 100% disagree that Ohio is slept on. This is like when someone said Michigan was slept on. Everyone knows about those states.
Slept on is Kentucky Arkansas Nevada Kansas Missouri Connecticut Wisconsin Delaware etc..
Not Lebron James and Magic Johnsons homestates. Not Detroit and Bone Thugs. Not ‘Get It In Ohio’ not the ‘Ohio Players’ not Shad Moss
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