The Brooklyn Encyclopedia
Notable Figures
Settlers, mayors, activists, planners, athletes and writers who shaped Brooklyn
From Lady Deborah Moody and the free Black community of Weeksville to Jackie Robinson and the writers of Brooklyn Heights, this volume traces the people who made Brooklyn a laboratory of liberty, intellect and equality. It also follows the sites that preserve their memory, from the Center for Brooklyn History to Ebbets Field and Willow Street.
- 9 chapters
- 24 min read
- 3 tables
- 90 sources
- Updated Friday, October 9
Contents
- The Center for Brooklyn HistoryBrooklyn’s memory is housed in the Center for Brooklyn History, an institution founded in 1863 whose landmark headquarters and archives document the borough’s journey from rural origins to an industrial and intellectual powerhouse.2 min read
- Foundations of Autonomy: Settlement and Early Municipal GovernanceFrom Lady Deborah Moody’s 1645 charter for Gravesend to Mayors George Hall and Henry C. Murphy, early Brooklyn set a precedent of autonomy, religious liberty and civic leadership.3 min read
- The Fortifications of Freedom: Weeksville and Black EmpowermentFounded in 1838 by James Weeks, Weeksville was one of the first free Black communities in the United States and produced a remarkable lineage of educators, physicians and activists.3 min read
- The Convergence of Medicine, Suffrage, and the NAACPDr. Verina Morton Jones, Mary White Ovington and Margaret Sanger used Brooklyn as a base for medicine, civil rights and bodily autonomy.4 min read
- Spiritual and Philanthropic EngineeringHenry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Church, Olmsted and Vaux’s Prospect Park and Charles Pratt’s Astral Apartments sought to ease the harsh realities of urban density.2 min read
- Ebbets Field and the Crucible of IntegrationAt Ebbets Field and in a Brooklyn Heights business office, Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier and changed the borough.4 min read
- The Literary Heights and Intellectual SanctuariesBrooklyn Heights became a sanctuary for American writers and intellectuals, from Walt Whitman to Truman Capote, Arthur Miller and W.E.B. Du Bois.2 min read
- 70 Willow Street and 31 Grace CourtThe histories of 70 Willow Street and 31 Grace Court show Brooklyn Heights as both an aesthetic haven for literary production and a refuge for persecuted intellectuals.2 min read
- ConclusionBrooklyn’s historical figures stand at the vanguard of the American ideological struggle, and sites like the Center for Brooklyn History keep their legacy alive.2 min read
All 90 sources of this volume
- 10 Secrets of the Center for Brooklyn History - Untapped New York ↗
- The Center for Brooklyn History ↗
- History - Brooklyn Public Library ↗
- Center for Brooklyn History - NYU ↗
- Center for Brooklyn History - New York Landmarks Conservancy ↗
- Brooklyn Public Library Center for Brooklyn History - Time Out ↗
- Center for Brooklyn History - Wikipedia ↗
- Online Collections | Center for Brooklyn History ↗
- Old Gravesend Cemetery Highlights - NYC Parks ↗
- Gravesend in Brooklyn - Atlas Obscura ↗
- Lady Deborah Moody, founder of Gravesend, Brooklyn ... - Facebook ↗
- Old Gravesend Cemetery - Wikipedia ↗
- Field Trip: Gravesend - Urban Omnibus ↗
- Washington Hall Park Highlights - NYC Parks ↗
- Timeline of Brooklyn - Wikipedia ↗
- Brooklyn Timeline ↗
- Brooklyn Heights Archives - The Bowery Boys: New York City History ↗
- Senator Street Historic District - - Trust for Architectural Easements ↗
- A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County - Project Gutenberg ↗
- Pictorial history of Brooklyn, issued by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on ↗
- The Eagle and Brooklyn: the record of the progress of the Brooklyn ↗
- Owls Head Park in Brooklyn's history and construction - Facebook ↗
- Black in Nineteenth-Century Brooklyn - Thought Gallery ↗
- Black in Nineteenth-Century Brooklyn - The Green-Wood Cemetery ↗
- Beyond the Village and Back: Historic Weeksville, Brooklyn ↗
- The Battle for Weeksville Heritage Center | 112BK - YouTube ↗
- Sarah J. Tompkins Garnet | Historical Brooklyn - WordPress.com ↗
- Weeksville, Brooklyn, New York, a story - African American Registry ↗
- WEEKSVILLE - Brooklyn Public Library ↗
- Abolitionist Brooklyn (1828 – 1849) | In Pursuit of Freedom ↗
- Brooklyn Walking Tours - In Pursuit of Freedom ↗
- NYC Landmarks and the Vote at 100 - ArcGIS StoryMaps ↗
- Sarah J.S. Tompkins Garnet Playground - Brooklyn ↗
- An unassuming building in New York City educated Black leaders ↗
- Put Her On A Pedestal - Monumental Women ↗
- Sarah J. Garnet - Wikipedia ↗
- Sarah J. Tompkins Garnet, Educator and Suffragist born. ↗
- In The Company Of Black Men: The African Influence on African ↗
- On Day 276 of 365 Facts About Black Women, I'm highlighting Dr ↗
- Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State ↗
- A Fundamental Component: Black Women and Right to Vote ↗
- Susan Smith McKinney Steward | Alexander Street Documents ↗
- Mary White Ovington | Suffragist, Activist, Writer - Britannica ↗
- Mary White Ovington | Encyclopedia.com ↗
- The Segregation Era (1900–1939) - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ↗
- CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS | NAACP Oranges & Maplewood Branch ↗
- The Birth of the NAACP, and Their Deep Roots in Greenwich Village ↗
- Seventy Fifth Anniversary of the Brownsville Clinic ↗
- In October of 1918, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control ↗
- Margaret Sanger's birth control clinic and other historic sites in ↗
- A Stroll Through Brooklyn Heights - walking tour ↗
- Address - Urban Archive - South of Union Square ↗
- Address - Urban Archive - South of Union Square ↗
- Prospect Park | New York Landmarks Conservancy ↗
- The Story of Olmsted and Vaux's Perfected Plan ↗
- Landmarks Conservancy Highlights Prospect Park ↗
- Prospect Park 150: The Creation of Prospect Park ↗
- Olmsted–Designed New York City Parks ↗
- Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn) - Wikipedia ↗
- Astral Apartments | HDC - Historic Districts Council ↗
- Astral Apartments - Wikipedia ↗
- Astral Apartments - NYC.gov ↗
- Brooklyn Dodgers - BR Bullpen - Baseball-Reference.com ↗
- Ebbets Field - Wikipedia ↗
- Jackie Robinson Playground Highlights - NYC Parks ↗
- Ebbets Field - MAAP | Mapping the African American Past ↗
- Swing through these 10 NYC sites associated with Jackie Robinson ↗
- Jackie Robinson Day | Museum of the City of New York ↗
- The Right Man for the Job - The City Reliquary ↗
- Where the Dodgers Made Baseball History and Jackie Robinson ↗
- Dodger Remnants: Jackie, Pee Wee, and a Brooklyn Left Behind ↗
- Ask a historian: What writers lived in Brooklyn Heights? ↗
- Brooklyn Heights - Wikipedia ↗
- Address - Urban Archive - South of Union Square ↗
- Whitmanites make surprise appearance at hearing to call for ↗
- OPINION: Walt Whitman, black Brooklyn, Wounded Knee and me ↗
- An Ode to Brooklyn Poets ↗
- Walt Whitman Initiative – Connecting NYC to America's Poet ↗
- Address - Urban Archive - South of Union Square ↗
- Brooklyn Heights Video Tour - Part 2 : New York Habitat Blog ↗
- Oliver Smith Residence / Truman Capote Residence ↗
- 70 Willow Street: Truman Capote's Onetime Home ↗
- Near Pier 10 - Urban Archive - South of Union Square ↗
- Flatbush + Main : W.E.B. Du Bois in Brooklyn ↗
- Address - Urban Archive - South of Union Square ↗
- W.E.B. Du Bois, Gender, and Black History - AAIHS ↗
- The Truman Capote House in Brooklyn Where He Wrote Breakfast ↗
- Brooklyn Heights: A Personal Memoir - Wikipedia ↗
- Truman Capote and his House on the Heights - Atlas Obscura ↗
- Det litterære Brooklyn | FDM Travel ↗