Founded in 1666, Newark is the third oldest major American City after New York and Boston. FYI, Philadelphia was founded in 1682.

The tri-state New York Metro Area has 21 million residents and 3.3 million people of African descent.

Tourism is a $17 billion per year industry for New York City, America’s #1 destination for international travelers.

Harlem is the most popular stop for European and Japanese tourists in New York.

Downtown Manhattan is the financial center of the world. Including Wall Street, it has headquarters for more than 70 companies on the Fortune 500. Since the 1990s, Downtown (“Lower Manhattan”) has added a large residential community and nightlife.

New York Metro Area is the worldwide transportation leader. It has world’s largest subway system with over 520 miles served, the world’s largest freeway system in terms of mileage, America’s largest commuter rail system, America’s largest passenger train traffic, America’s largest ferry system, America’s largest taxi population, and the world’s 2nd highest traffic multi-airport system that handles 83 million passengers, annually.

The Manhattan borough, a dense 125 square miles of New York City, holds the distinction of “world’s largest and busiest” in these categories as well:

largest live theatre district
largest concentration of office skyscrapers
largest concentration of residential skyscrapers
largest financial district
largest density of retail stores
largest collection of performing arts centers
largest collection of art galleries
largest collection of restaurants
largest collection of cultural centers
most award-winning public park
most award-winning architecture
most sports championships
most respected newspapers & magazines
most book publishers

Manhattan has 2 million residents and swells to a workday population of 4 million.

Across the Hudson River, the combination of Newark and Jersey City would form the the 2nd highest concentration of corporate headquarters in greater New York.

The two New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens have a combined 1.5 million people of African descent. About 1 million people of African descent reside in Manhattan. Add the Bronx, Staten Island and the suburbs and you get to get the largest Black population in the nation at roughly 3.3 million.



The largest of the five boroughs, Queens extends 15 miles east to west and 18 miles north to south--constituting 37 percent of the territory of New York City. Queens is nearly as large as Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island boroughs combined.

Persons born in metropolitan metropolitan New York or made their mark here:

Malcolm X – an honorable leader and brother
A. Philip Randolph – organizer of the 1963 March on Washington
W.E.B. Du Bois – Black intellectual
Marcus Garvey – Black nationalist
Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. - minister
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. – minister and US Representative
Duke Ellington – composer and bandleader
David Dinkins – 1st Black mayor of New York
Sidney Poitier – actor and director
Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis - actors
Sylvia Porter - restauranteur
Rev. Al Sharpton – political activist and presidential candidate
Rev. Calvin Butts - Baptist minister & community leader
Rev. Wyatt T. Walker – Civil Rights activist and minister
Billy Strayhorn – composer and jazz musician
Billie Holiday – first lady of jazz
Ella Fitzgerald – first lady of song
Alicia Keyes – Neo-soul artist
Arturo Schomburg – extraordinary librarian of Black History
Luther Vandross – Soul balladeer
Alberta Hunter - singer
Malik Yoba - actor
Charles Rangel – US Representative
James Van Der Zee – photographer
James Weldon Johnson – composer of the Negro Anthem
Percy Sutton – media magnate
Millie Jackson – R&B vocalist
Walt Frazier – All-star New York Knicks basketball player
Susan Taylor – Essence magazine editor
Earl Graves – Black Enterprise magazine publisher
Alvin Ailey – dance troupe founder & director
Judith Jamerson - dance troupe artistic director
Althea Gibson – the first Black tennis champion
Frank Silvera – founder of the writer’s workshop
Augusta Savage - sculptor
Romare Beardon – visual artist
Amiri Baraka – writer and social critic
Paul Robeson - 4-sport star, vocalist, lawyer, Broadway actor, movie actor, spoke seven languages and Human Rights Activist
Kenneth Gibson – 1st Black mayor of Newark
Whitney Houston - Pop and R&B singer and actor
Sarah Vaughn - Jazz singer
Savion Glover -Tap dance king and Broadway performer
Queen Latifah - Actor, Hip-Hop performer, entrepreneur
Marvin Hagler - Middleweight boxing champ
Isley Brothers - R&B singers 1950s-2000s
Count Basie - Big band jazz leader