Greenburgh’s African American Legacy Shines in a New Exhibit

An exhibit opens at the Greenburgh Town Hall to pay tribute to movers and shakers of African descent who lived in Greenburgh.

Coinciding with Black History Month, an exhibit at Greenburgh Town Hall (177 Hillside Ave, White Plains) will pay tribute to business professionals, athletes, musicians, academics, and other movers and shakers of African descent who lived in Greenburgh—one of the first localities in the U.S. where a large middle-class Black community thrived.

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The exhibit, which is scheduled to open by February 1 and run through June, honors such celebrated public figures as civil rights attorney Vernon E. Jordan Jr., jazzman Cab Calloway, jazz pianist and civil rights activist Hazel Scott (wife of former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr.), Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella, comedian “Moms”” Mabley, and photojournalist/author Gordon Parks— all of whom called Greenburgh home at one time or another.

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“Moms”” Mabley

The exhibit lays the groundwork for a permanent Greenburgh Black History Museum to be set up at the town hall with at least two separate exhibits annually. A museum committee is applying for grants to support the project and is asking private citizens, arts communities, and historical societies to contribute artifacts, photographs, personal anecdotes, and any historical information about Greenburgh’s rich Black heritage and the achievements of its African American population—as well as archival materials for an exhibit about individuals enslaved in the town during the 18th and 19th century. (Contact the committee via the Fairview Empowerment Group at feginc.org/gbhm.)

Roy Campanella

To complement the proposed museum, Greenburgh is considering expanding the effort with additional exhibit space, maps of historically significant sites, walking tours, and educational talks about local Black history.

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