On This Day in History: March 21Brooklyn’s First Black Landowner
by Brooklyn Eagle (edit@brooklyneagle.net), published online 03-21-2008

BROOKLYN — Slavery was abolished in the State of New York in 1827, but racism continued to be pervasive, in particular, it was very difficult for blacks to purchase land. Two blacks were persistent and ingenious and successful in acquiring land in Brooklyn. On March 21, 1832 a chimney sweeper by the name of William Thomas bought 30 acres of land in the Bedford Stuyvesant area. He was Brooklyn’s first black landowner on record. Another black, James Weeks, also bought land in that area. It became a black settlement named Weeksville. Thirty years earlier, in 1802, James Ash is on record as Brooklyn’s first black home-owner (41 Hicks Street).