As an intersection is renamed in Zora Neale Hurston’s honor, historians are fighting to preserve the Harlem black elite’s legacy so residents will be mindful of who existed before them

The building, built in 1901, housed many illustrious characters of the Harlem renaissance, the art and literary movement which reshaped the neighbourhood and radically transformed African American culture in the 1920s and 1930s. One of Graham Court’s most distinguished residents was Zora Neale Hurston, the famed chronicler of early 20th-century African American life.

She lived there in the mid-1930s and this year, after an 11-year battle, the street intersection was finally named in her honor.

Karen Taylor, founder and executive director of While We’re Still Here, a historical preservation society that works to document and preserve the historic homes of the Harlem black elite, remembers the tussle in the local community board over naming a major thoroughfare after the late author and anthropologist. She says that while Harlem boasts streets named after Martin Luther King Jr and Adam Clayton Powell Jr, “people may be reluctant to name a major thoroughfare after a woman, particularly a black woman”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zora Neale Hurston. Photograph: Fotosearch/Getty Images

It is an auspicious time for Taylor’s work: this year, a previously unpublished book by Hurston – Barracoon, the story of the last slave brought to the United States – became a New York Times bestseller. Taylor hopes the recent street naming will kickstart a domino effect – but commemorating black people, especially black women, across the city’s five boroughs is no easy task.

Jacob Morris, president of the Harlem Historical Society, says of the newly minted Zora Neale Hurston Place: “God bless heaven. It’s serendipity. Could I have planned that in my wildest dreams? The answer is no.”

For years, Morris excelled as a real estate agent working in Manhattan; it wasn’t until he became dissatisfied with his son’s treatment at school – he has asthma – that he started exploring advocacy work in earnest. Since 2006, he has orchestrated the commemoration of many black luminaries, including WEB DuBois, Thurgood Marshall and Paul Robeson.

Tapping into his decades-long interest in history, Morris also began to study New York City’s role in the Underground Railroad, a secret network of routes and safe houses for African Americans fleeing from slavery. He applied for a federal grant and started collaborating with Richard Green of the Crown Heights Youth Collective. In 2005, Morris had his first success in street naming: Frederick Douglass Landing, named after the man famous for escaping from slavery and becoming the leader of an abolitionist moment.

There is a complicated process to request a street sign be renamed in someone’s honor: after obtaining 200 signatures for the petition and the approval of the local community board, the proposal is passed to the city council and mayor for approval.

Early in Morris’s activism, a young black woman on the community board told Morris that she would not approve his initiatives unless he included black women. He has been eternally grateful she corrected his oversight.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A street named after Ella Baker. Photograph: Max Burkhalter

The first New York City place renaming in honor of a black woman was just 25 years ago: Mary McLeod Bethune, who was a maverick educator and government official involved in the civil and women’s rights movements in the 20th century. A group of local second-grade students were studying Harlem’s history and one black boy asked why there weren’t any streets named after black women. The students successfully petitioned to have a street named after Bethune.

“Historical accounts of the civil rights movement have tended to emphasize the charismatic men who led the movement as part of the ‘great man’ version of history, [which is why] most streets and other places named in honor of civil rights heroes have been named after African American men rather than women,” Reuben Rose-Redwood, associate professor of geography at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, says.

“By the 1990s, feminist historians were challenging male-dominated historical narratives and more women were also entering local politics. It’s at this time that we begin to see more city streets named in honor of African American women.”

Until 2010, there were over 100 places named after black people across the city, but less than 15 honoring black women. In addition to Hurston, Jacob Morris is responsible for honoring A’Lelia Walker, a patron of the arts during the Harlem Renaissance and daughter of Madam CJ Walker, who was the first female self-made millionaire in America; Ella Baker, a prominent civil rights activist; singer Billie Holiday, and Dr Susan Smith McKinney, the first black woman to earn a medical degree in the state of New York.

A’Lelia Bundles, an award-winning journalist and great-great granddaughter to Walker, is thrilled by those initiatives. “When our stories aren’t told and our contributions are ignored, the message to us and to others is that our lives don’t matter, that our lives aren’t worthy,” she says. “Never underestimate the power of a street sign or a historical marker to inspire a young person, to raise awareness of an ally and to challenge the ignorance of a bigot.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harlem street named after WEB Dubois. Photograph: Max Burkhalter

On a walking tour around Harlem, Morris juxtaposed the way men are commemorated in public spaces versus women. Near the corner of West 150th and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, there is a playground, mural and plaque dedicated to Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, a famous black tap dancer and actor whose career spanned four decades.

One block over, there is a granite monument standing at the entrance of a playground named after Frederick Johnson, the former trainer of Althea Gibson, who was the first person of color in tennis to win a grand slam, one of the most important tournaments of the sport, and first black woman on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time, among other accomplishments. Yet the two tennis courts connected to the playground where Althea Gibson trained as a youth have no monuments or plaques dedicated to Gibson.

Morris feels like he’s in a race against time because of gentrification. Soon, he argues, Harlem will no longer be a black majority neighborhood. These historical legacies need to be cemented now or the elements that made the neighborhood great will forever be lost.

However, there are those, such as Harlem historian Michael Henry Adams, who believe that the street signs aren’t enough: “Fewer than 5% of the buildings in Harlem are protected by landmarking whereas in Greenwich Village, it’s about two-thirds that are protected … the houses of worship and places that people lived and worked in are disappearing. If Harlem is white, it won’t really matter how many street signs are named after black people.”

Nevertheless, Morris has more women to honor. Writer Maya Angelou is his next project. Then Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen, two influential writers from the Harlem Renaissance.

“Street naming represents a tangible manifestation of the community’s respect,” he says. He wants any and all Harlem residents, irrespective of race or gender or class, to be mindful of who existed before them.