Students at P.S. 11 learned about one of America's first free black communities.

The students brought the history of Weeksville to life with an art project. The town had its own churches and schools 180 years ago.

Students say it was amazing to learn about the history.

The second-grade teacher who worked with the students invited Rob Fields, the president and executive director of the Weeksville Heritage Center, to see what the students worked on.

Fields says it's important for all New Yorkers, particularly black children, to know that black history was so much more than slavery, Martin Luther King and Barack Obama.