Trolley tour to celebrate Black History Month in Brooklyn
A Look at the Lives of Prominent Black New Yorkers, with Lunch
The last slave in New York refused her owner’s offer of freedom. When the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree in New York died, W.E.B. DuBois gave her eulogy. When a famous Brooklyn artist went to California to paint, he brought along his girlfriend, an unknown aspiring singer named Madonna.
These are just a few of the lives being celebrated on a special Black History Month trolley tour put together by Green-Wood Cemetery and Weeksville Heritage Center. The tour, highlighting prominent black New Yorkers and abolitionists, takes place on Saturday, Feb. 25.
Beginning with a trolley ride through Green-Wood, attendees will first visit the graves of notable residents including Margaret Pine (1778-1857), the aforementioned last slave in New York; Susan Smith McKinney Steward (1847-1918), the first black female doctor in the state; James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), a lawyer and diplomat famous for penning the popular hymn Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing; and accomplished artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1959-1988).
The trolley will also visit Green-Wood’s “Colored Lots,” and learn the burial ground’s recently unearthed history.