NYC Monuments of Black Americans: Author Talk with David Felsen In-Person / Online

New York City is blessed with an incredible array of public sculptures. One overlooked aspect of this collection is its monuments of Black Americans, each with its own remarkable story. The first appearance of a Black person in a city monument came in the Civil War Soldiers’ Monument in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery in 1876, but this was a nameless symbolic figure. It wasn’t until 1945 that Booker T. Washington became the first identifiable Black American honored in a New York City monument. In 2007, the city dedicated its first monument to a Black woman, Harriet Tubman. Behind every first is a story of triumph over adversity and exclusion. With New York City Monuments of Black Americans: A History and Guide, local author David Felsen reveals the stories behind thirty inspiring monuments that have endured, as well as how they found their place in the city’s history.

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David Felsen is an Emmy Award Winning producer who teaches American history to eleventh graders at Avenues: The World School in New York City. He has an MA in American history from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and a bachelor’s degree in history from Haverford College. Before becoming a history teacher, David produced television documentaries for HBO, PBS and History, among others. He lives in Brooklyn near Prospect Park with his wife, his son and a dog and a cat.