New York City turns 400 years old this year and centuries of literal blood, sweat, and tears have gone into making the city what it is — a titan of industry, a bastion of culture, a tiny archipelago with millions of people, and a place that has always been home to immigrants of all kinds.
The latest census data shows that about 36% of the city’s 8.2 million population is “foreign-born.” It’s a hard pill for many New Yorkers to swallow that anti-immigrant hate is prevalent in not only the country in 2025, but a city literally built by enslaved African labor and currently captained by the city’s second Black mayor.
Genesis of a city
Since the very beginning immigrants have been a part of the foundation of what would be New York City, according to the state’s New York Quadricentennial Committee. Juan Rodriguez (possibly Rodrigues) was the first “non-indigenous inhabitant” who arrived on a Dutch ship and opted to stay in 1613. He worked for the first Dutch fur trading post. He was of Portuguese and West African descent, but born in Santo Domingo, Hispaniola (now known as the Dominican Republic). Little is known about his life, but he is considered representative of people within the African diaspora at the time who traveled “the Atlantic world” out of bondage.
The colony started out as Dutch settlements on Nutten (now Governor’s) Island, populated with predominantly French colonizing families in 1624. The land was stewarded by the indigenous tribes of the Lenape Native Americans for thousands of years prior to that. In 1625, Fort Amsterdam was constructed on Mannahatta (now Manhattan) at the southern tip of the island where the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is. By 1626, the Lenape “bartered” with the Dutch for the rights to use Manhattan for the colony of New Amsterdam.
Between 1626 and 1627, a Dutch slave ship brought the first enslaved Africans to the colony, according to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. There were 11 men and women from the Congo, Angola, and the island of São Tome. About 18 years later, the men had petitioned the Dutch for their freedom and were given land in exchange for food contributions to the colony. Their wives were freed, too, but their children remained enslaved. When the colony was taken over by the British in 1664, it was composed of people with many nationalities, including Dutch, English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, German, French Huguenot, Sephardic Jewish, and African.
As the colony expanded into a city so did the “aggressive increase” in the slave trade, leading to the opening of an official slave market in 1711 on Wall Street. By 1730, about 42% of the population owned African and Caribbean men, women, and children, whose labor built the city and was the “engine” that made its economy run.
Prominent Historical Figures
When people think of the archetypal immigrant arriving in New York City with a bag, no money, and a dream, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty are usually somewhere in the backdrop. The processing center on Ellis Island for those newly arrived, mostly from Europe, saw more than 12 million immigrants from 1892 to 1954. Passenger logs indicate that plenty of famous and influential leaders in literature, art, and science also came through Ellis Island over the years, including renowned poet and writer Claude McKay.
“The rich culture and strength of New York City neighborhoods stands on the shoulders of Black immigrants like Pierre Touissant, Arturo Schomburg, Celia Cruz, Claude McKay, Shirley Chisholm, and Lamuel Stanislaus,” said former Assemblymember Bronx Michael Blake. “There is no New York City without immigrants from the African diaspora. We are business owners, police and firefighters, nurses and scientists, and the curators of a culture that makes New York the greatest city in the world.”
McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889 as Festus Claudius McKay. His first arrival to the U.S. was in 1912, where he studied agriculture at the Tuskegee Institute and Kansas State Agricultural College. He began his writing career as he travelled the country working as a Pullman porter and dock hand. His works led him to be one of the first leading figures in the Harlem Renaissance, authoring novels, manuscripts, and poems about the Black experience and the human condition. He also travelled the world, including trips to Europe and the Soviet Union.
Of course, New York City’s Harlem was not only responsible for hosting the world’s most influential immigrant artists. The “Black Mecca,” as it was called, was a platform for some of the most radical and provocative thought leaders of the time.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., who was also from Jamaica, developed philosophies that would go on to inspire the Nation of Islam, the Black Power movement, the Rastafari movement, and others. A staunch Pan-African nationalist, he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914. He pushed support for his Black-owned ship line, which eventually led him to be charged with fraud, and controversially believed in racial separatism rather than integration.
Garvey was deported from the U.S. in 1927, but continued his organization in his native country. He was pardoned posthumously by former President Joe Biden last month.
Generations to Come
Perhaps the most significant part of immigrants’ contribution to the city’s makeup is the second, third, and fourth generations of artists, doctors, lawyers, business owners, and political powerhouses that chose to stay here and make America great.
“The resilience of the African Diaspora is evident in every step we take forward, despite the injustices that have tried to hold us back,” said Khari Edwards, a candidate in this year’s race for Brooklyn borough president. “When my wife and I visited Ghana for the first time, standing inside the dungeons of Elmina and Cape Coast Castles, we witnessed the haunting reality of what our ancestors endured — ripped from their homeland, beaten, raped, separated from their families, and tortured, only to be forced onto slave ships to build a society that still, to this day, refuses to see their full humanity. Yet, more than 400 years later, we see the extraordinary strength and accomplishments of their descendants.”
World-renowned civil rights leader Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968, and the first woman and Black person to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. Born in Brooklyn in 1924, she was the oldest of four daughters of immigrant parents. Her father was a factory worker from Charles St. Hill in Guyana, and her mother was a seamstress from Ruby Seale St. Hill in Barbados.
Her motto of “unbought and unbossed” has continued to be a rallying cry for Black women and men throughout the country. Plenty of children of immigrants in the city have followed in her footsteps by pursuing a career in politics.
“I’m from Haiti and came here. Knowing that I was not born here but am included in the process, I’m a part of the fabric of New York City. And I could fight and represent my community,” said Brooklyn Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse, who immigrated to the U.S. as a high school student. “Not just the Haitian community here but the community at large that I represent. All. Everyone, I represent everyone.”
“As a child of Jamaican immigrants, I have firsthand knowledge of the deep commitment and sacrifices made by new Americans to our great city,” said Blake, who’s also running for mayor. “Immigrants care for and teach our children, serve in the military, and anchor the moral fabric of our communities as faith leaders — all things I’ve witnessed in my family alone.”
Senator Zellnor Myrie, who is running for mayor this year, was born and raised in Brooklyn. His parents came to New York from Costa Rica over 40 years ago. When asked who he’d highlight as a local figure of immigrant background that shaped the city, he went outside the box and chose Constance Baker Motley, a trailblazing lawyer and civil rights activist.
“We had the honor of having a national treasure, a proud daughter of immigrants…who broke so many barriers who has set such a strong legacy,” said Myrie. “First as a lawyer for the NAACP she was instrumental in the landmark cases that were argued during the height of the civil rights movement, including Brown versus Board of Education. While we honor and praise Thurgood Marshall, and he deserves every word of it, it was her work in the background and daily that helped make those cases what they were but then she didn’t stop there.” She became the first Black woman elected to the New York State Senate.
Myrie gushed about how Motley continued to achieve even more as she went on to become the first female borough president of Manhattan and broke a federal barrier by becoming the first Black woman federal judge in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
“So this proud daughter of immigrants not only is an example of why that contribution to our city is so important,” said Mryie. “It is truly an example of what can happen when we invest in this community, and when we let people flourish and be great as they were intended to be.”
One of Narcisse’s biggest local inspirations is former Councilmember Dr. Una Clarke, who is the first Caribbean-born woman to be elected to the New York City Legislature.
Narcisse herself attended Tilden High School in Brooklyn, where she learned to speak English. She became a registered nurse, was an incredibly active member and president of local political clubs while running a small business, and raised her four children. She is the first Haitian-born person to represent the 46th City Council District in Brooklyn. She credited her growing up with her grandmother back in Haiti for sparking her love of community engagement and politics. Her grandmother was an organizer who fought for better pay equity for farm workers.
“As a kid, I was 5 years old, they would wake me up to go to the farm to help out,” said Narcisse. “To carry water every summer.”
Many aspiring leaders from immigrant backgrounds Amsterdam News reached out to also attributed their love of civics and community to growing up with loved ones that were fierce advocates.
Hassan Bakiriddin, who runs the Unified Political Association (UPA), highlighted Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, who is famously proud of his Grenadian heritage; Patricia Reddock, president of the 67th Precinct Community Council in East Flatbush; and his wife, Joan Bakiriddin — who was the first Vice President of the Brooklyn NAACP.
Edwards’ mother was a vocal leader for the New York State Association of Minority Contractors (NYSAMC) and advised countless elected officials. She relentlessly fought for minority businesses to have equal footing, funding, and access to opportunities that were historically reserved for white contractors, he said.
“For me, this resilience is best embodied by my mother, Elenora P. Bernard. Like so many before her, she migrated to the United States seeking opportunity, not just for herself but for her community,” said Edwards. “She shattered barriers, becoming the first African American and Caribbean American Vice President at Episcopal Health Services, where she led the construction of the Bishop Hercules Nursing Home in Bed-Stuy — an opportunity she ensured included minority contractors who had long been shut out of such projects.”
“Her life’s work was a testament to what the African Diaspora has achieved in the face of oppression,” continued Edwards. “From the horrors of slavery to the fight for economic justice, she embodied the unbreakable spirit of our people. Her legacy is not just one of personal success, but of creating pathways for others, ensuring that the sacrifices of our ancestors were not in vain.”
Ah, the rich tapestry of New York City, woven with the threads of Black immigrants’ indomitable spirits. Shirley Chisholm, born to Guyanese and Barbadian parents, shattered ceilings as the first Black woman in Congress. Marvel Cooke, a trailblazing journalist, illuminated the struggles of the marginalized. Their legacies, among others, are the bedrock of the city’s vibrant history.