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The Black Ecosystem in New Hampshire

Who We Are. How We Got Here. Why It Matters.

New Hampshire is often described as overwhelmingly white. What gets erased in that narrative is the diversity within the Black community itself.

There is no single Black experience in NH.

We are layered. We come from different migration histories, different class backgrounds, different spiritual traditions, different relationships to America, and different understandings of what solidarity looks like.

If we are serious about building a Black-led ecosystem, we must understand who is actually here

Descendants of the Great Migration (Second Wave)

These are families whose grandparents or great-grandparents left the South during the Great Migration.

Many were born in the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic (Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania) but carry deep Southern cultural roots. Some later relocated to New England for work, education, or military service.

How this shapes experience in NH:

Strong church traditions and Southern kinship structures
Deep ties to Black American civil rights history
Often hold intergenerational knowledge of anti-Black violence in the U.S.
May expect structured, church-anchored community life

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Descendants of Free and Enslaved Black New Englanders

Black people have been in New England since the 1600s. Some families trace lineage to slavery in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or New Hampshire. Others descend from free Black mariners, abolitionists, and early landowners.

This history is rarely acknowledged.

How this shapes experience in NH:

Deep generational ties to specific towns
Strong awareness of New England’s hidden slavery history
Sometimes greater proximity to white institutions over generations
May experience tension with newcomers framed as “just arriving”

1st and 2nd Generation Black Immigrants

This is not one group. It includes distinct ethnic communities.

In NH and greater New England, this may include:

Caribbean: Haitian, Jamaican, Trinidadian, Dominican (Afro-Dominican), Barbadian, Grenadian
West African: Nigerian, Ghanaian, Liberian, Sierra Leonean, Senegalese
Central/East African: Congolese, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somali
Cape Verdean communities, especially significant in New England

How this shapes experience in NH:

Strong ethnic identity alongside racial identity
Different relationships to U.S. race politics
Multilingual households
Tight church or ethnic association networks
Sometimes distance from Black American political frameworks

Black Americans Newly Transplanted (Last 10 Years)

This includes Black professionals, remote workers, military transfers, and families seeking affordability or proximity to Boston.

How this shapes experience in NH:

Culture shock at the level of whiteness
Often isolated at first
May have financial resources but limited community ties
Searching for Black spaces that already exist

Other Important Pockets in NH

Black military families
Black college students and recent graduates
Black multiracial families
Black refugee communities
Black people in rural northern NH
Black disabled and neurodivergent folks
Black queer and gender expansive folks

These identities overlap across migration histories.

How These Differences Shape Our Experiences

These differences are not abstract. They show up in real ways.

Example 1: Church and Spiritual Identity

Some families are deeply rooted in Christian institutions that have historically been survival anchors. Others are actively deconstructing Christianity due to its role in colonialism and anti-Black harm.

This can create tension around programming, language, and leadership.

Example 2: Relationship to “Black Politics”

Some immigrant families may not initially identify with Black American civil rights frameworks. Meanwhile, descendants of the Great Migration may see racial struggle as central to identity.

This affects how people interpret police violence, funding equity, or solidarity campaigns.

Example 3: Class Stratification

Newly transplanted professionals may earn significantly more than refugee or working-class families in Manchester. Meanwhile, generational New England Black families may have deep roots but limited accumulated wealth due to historic exclusion.

Class differences influence:

Who has time to volunteer
Who can donate
Who needs direct mutual aid
Who feels represented in leadership

Example 4: “We’ve Been Here” vs. “We Just Got Here”

Long-time New England Black families may feel invisible in narratives that center newcomers. New transplants may feel there is no visible Black infrastructure.

Both experiences are real.

How These Differences Shape Our Experiences

Solidarity requires honesty.

Within the Black ecosystem in NH, there are real stratifications:

Immigrant vs. Black American tensions
Class divides (professional vs. working class vs. poor)
Church-anchored vs. spiritually deconstructing
Long-time residents vs. newcomers
Lighter-skinned vs. darker-skinned bias
Heterosexual normativity vs. queer/trans exclusion
U.S. born vs. refugee narratives
Educated through institutions vs. educated through lived experience

Naming these realities does not divide us.

Ignoring them does.

Why This Matters to BWINH Collective

Mapping the Black ecosystem in New Hampshire isn’t just information for us.

It’s direction.

Not all Black folks move through this state the same way. Some have proximity to resources. Some have generational ties here. Some have professional access.

Others are navigating isolation, economic pressure, immigration stress, church trauma, colorism, ableism, and being the only one in the room every single day.

So we are clear about who we center.

We center:

Dark-skinned Black folks
Black women and femmes
Queer, trans, and gender expansive Black people
Poor, working-class, and underpaid Black people
Black immigrants and refugees figuring it out in a new system
Black people deconstructing from colonial religion
Black disabled and neurodivergent folks
Black people in large bodies
Black single parents and caregivers
Black youth growing up surrounded by whiteness

Because in New Hampshire, those are often the folks carrying the most weight with the least support.

Centering the most impacted isn’t about exclusion.

It’s about building right.

When the people who have been pushed to the margins are resourced, heard, and supported, the entire ecosystem shifts.

We’re not here to flatten our differences to make things comfortable.

We’re here to build structures where nobody has to shrink to belong.

That’s the work.

Where Do You Locate Yourself?

Take a moment to reflect.

What migration history do you carry?

Were your people part of the Great Migration?
Have your ancestors been in New England for generations?
Did your family arrive from Haiti, Nigeria, Cape Verde, Liberia, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, or elsewhere?
Did you move to New Hampshire in the last decade for work, school, or affordability?

How has that shaped the way you understand community?
How has it shaped your relationship to race, class, faith, solidarity, or leadership?

Where do you hold privilege within the Black ecosystem?
Where do you experience marginalization?

Have you felt unseen here?
Have you unintentionally overlooked others?

There is no hierarchy of Blackness here.

There are simply different histories meeting in the same place.

Understanding where we stand helps us build differently.
It helps us move with intention instead of assumption.
It allows us to build ecosystems rooted in honesty, not nostalgia.

If you see yourself reflected in this map, we invite you to locate yourself not just socially, but relationally.

Who are you in community?
What do you bring?
What do you need?
What are you willing to build alongside others?

Solidarity begins with self-awareness.

And from there, we can begin building what New Hampshire has never fully made space for:
a Black ecosystem rooted in truth, accountability, and care.