Eric K. Washington is a historian and the author of Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal, chronicling a forgotten, but once essential, Harlem-based Black railroad labor force — which won the Herbert H Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship of New York History, the GANYC Apple Award and special recognition as a finalist for the Municipal Art Society’s Brendan Gill Prize. This past spring, Eric received the Historic District Council’s 2023 Grassroots Preservation Award, and the Victorian Society of New York’s 2022 Preservation Award, for his advocacy leading to the landmark designation of (Former) Colored School No. 4, a relic of the city’s 19th-century racial-caste public school system that once served Chelsea and Greenwich Village.
Eric is a board member of the Biographers International Organization (BIO) and chairs its annual Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship that awards a biography-in-progress on an African American figure. Additionally, he serves on New York City’s Archives, Reference and Research Advisory Board (ARRAB) of the Municipal Archives. A licensed New York City tour guide, Eric also owns Tagging-the-Past, which endeavors to reconnect forgotten history to present landscapes through articles, consulting, public history talks and tours.
September 11 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Greenwich Village as Harlem’s Preamble and Echo: A Random Illustrated Survey:
The Village Trip Lecture by Eric K Washington