Black Authors and New York City

6sqft has a great article on Black authors and New York City.  In their list of books, Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin's book, Harlem Nocturn is mentioned.  Professor Griffin (and now the Chair, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies; William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies and Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies) was instrumental in helping the Harlem Neighborhood Block Association to petition the city to co-name East 129th Street as Ann Petry Place: 

A number of other NYC classics and lesser know works, are listed here:

https://www.6sqft.com/books-about-new-york-city-by-black-authors/

Harlem’s Tree of Hope

The original “Tree of Hope” was an elm tree that stood in the median at 131st Street and Seventh Avenue (now Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard) near the Lafayette Theater. Many of the performers believed that rubbing the tree was good luck and they would give the stump a pat—a habit that spread to the other residents of Harlem.

In 1934, the tree was chopped down by the city in order to widen the street, but the stump was preserved and later restored to the same location by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson who also had another elm tree planted immediately behind it. A section of the original tree went to the Apollo Theater, where hopefuls would rub the preserved chunk before they went on stage.

In 1971, Algernon Miller was commissioned to create a colorful sculpture, Tree of Hope III, to replace the stump. The sculpture is still there, and Miller returned in 2004 to restore the faded sculpture to its original glory. A plaque at its base commemorates the original tree and the well wishes of Bill Robinson for the people of Harlem.

Read more about the original tree and see a photo of children patting the stump in 1937 here and here.