Slave Theater

Slave Theater
Slave I
Street view of the Slave Theater marquee, before the theater was demolished in 2016
Interactive map of Slave Theater
Former namesRegent Theater
Address1215 Fulton Street
LocationBrooklyn, New York 11216
Coordinates40°40′50″N 73°57′10″W / 40.680677°N 73.952772°W / 40.680677; -73.952772
TypeMovie theater
Construction
Built1910
Opened1986
Closed2012
Demolished2016

Slave Theater, also called the Slave I, was a movie theater located at 1215 Fulton Street in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City. The theater was founded in 1984 by Brooklyn judge John L. Phillips Jr. to screen a film he had produced and became a center of civil rights organizing in Brooklyn.

Phillips named the theater as a reminder of slavery as the origin of African-American and black American history. The name had a mixed reception by the Bed–Stuy community, but the theater became an emblem of Black pride in Brooklyn. After a complicated legal battle over ownership after Phillips's death, the theater was sold in 2013 and demolished in late 2016.