Welcome to the Huntington African American Museum
Where Culture & Community Thrive
Welcome to the Huntington African American Museum
Where Culture & Community Thrive
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Where Culture & Community Thrive
“Legacy is not what’s left tomorrow when you’re gone. It’s what you give, create, impact and contribute today while you’re here that then happens to live on.”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY IS AMERICAN HISTORY. IT BELONGS TO ALL OF US.
Our Mission
We are an internationally-recognized museum that honors the depth of African American history while celebrating its ceaseless influence, locally and globally. This is a place where long-buried stories rise to meet contemporary brilliance, cementing African American History as inseparable from American History and essential to our shared future.
Stories of resilience, creativity, and community have always lived in this soil. The Peter Crippen House stands as witness. This museum rises where history has always been—waiting to surface, waiting to be seen.
Where do we go to understand African American contributions to American life? Where do diverse communities gather to see themselves reflected and elevated? We build this museum because American history demands it.
Explore Collection
On View At
Huntington African American Museum
Huntington, New York, is a town located on Long Island, and like many communities across the United States, it is characterized by its diversity. African Americans in Huntington contribute to the town’s rich cultural tapestry and have played a significant role in shaping its history and community life.
Exhibitions
Visitors
Awards
Collections
Alice Coltrane
1937-2007
Alice Coltrane stands as one of this country’s leading women in jazz. A skilled pianist and one of the rare jazz harpists in history, Alice Coltrane lived in Huntington with her husband, John, as an accomplished American musician, composer, bandleader, and Hindu spiritual leader.
PHOTO CREDIT:
https://www.alicecoltrane.com/
Booker T. Washington
1856-1915
An American educator, author, and orator, served as the predominant leader in the African American community and contemporary Black elite from 1890 to 1915. For many years, Huntington was Mr. Washington’s summer home.
PHOTO CREDIT:
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/booker-t-washington
Samuel Ballton
1838 -1917
Peter Crippen
1809-1875
Pioneer of the African American community in Huntington, Peter Crippen made his way to Huntington from Virginia and purchased a grist mill, the oldest industrial building in North America, and made it his home. The home remained in his family for over 100 years through 2019. Mr. Crippen was a founding member of Bethel AME Church, the first African American church in Huntington.
PHOTO CREDIT:
https://1653foundation.org/crippen-house/
Jupiter Hammon
1711-1806
A lifelong enslaved person and an American writer, Jupiter Hammon is acknowledged as “the father of African American poetry.” His poems were first published in 1761, the first African American published poet in North America. Beyond his groundbreaking poetry, he also authored prose, served as a preacher, and worked as a commercial clerk for the Lloyd family on what is now known as Lloyd Neck, New York.
PHOTO CREDIT:
https://english.colostate.edu/jupiter-hammon-collage/
John William Coltrane
1920-1967
A lifelong Huntington resident and iconic American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer, he stands as a pivotal and highly praised figure in the realms of jazz and 20th-century music.
PHOTO CREDIT:
https://www.johncoltrane.com/biography