We Travel the Spaceways (Black Stars, #6)

by Victor LaValle

there used to be a town called Seneca Village. Two hundred twenty-five residents. Most of them were Black. Some Irish and German folks too. But it was a Black town. Started in 1825. It was safer to live together. White people in other parts of Manhattan were not kind. But then New York City decided they wanted to build a park right here, so what did they do? They snatched the land back. It was legal, but that doesn’t mean it was right.