This past Wednesday, Mr. Robert Sandler's New York City History class took a deep dive into the vibrant, complex story of Harlem with a walking tour that brought over 300 years of history to life. They traced the neighborhood’s evolution from a 17th-century Dutch settlement and rural retreat for figures like Alexander Hamilton, to a bustling Jewish enclave—the third largest in the world at its peak—and ultimately to the cultural and political capital of Black America.
As they walked the streets, we explored how transportation, real estate, and race intersected to shape Harlem’s transformation. We admired the architecture of Strivers’ Row, studied WPA murals by Black artists, and visited the Schomburg Center, where we engaged with the poetry of Langston Hughes and the legacy of leaders like A. Philip Randolph, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois. At Abyssinian Baptist Church, they discussed Adam Clayton Powell Jr.’s powerful boycotts of 125th Street businesses that refused to hire Black workers, and in Morningside Park, we explored the 1968 Columbia student uprising. Thier final stop was the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where students examined Gothic and Romanesque architecture, medieval engineering, and the unfinished ambition of one of the city’s grandest landmarks.
Students connected Harlem’s layered past to the present as we stood by a Black Lives Matter memorial near Astor Row, reflecting on the names of Amadou Diallo and Trayvon Martin—and confronting how the legacies of injustice still echo through the neighborhood today. We ended the day with a celebratory soul food lunch—fried chicken, jerk chicken, candied yams, collard greens, and more—giving students a literal taste of the culture that continues to nourish Harlem’s spirit.See a full size photo collage here.
