Triumph of the Human Spirit

Foley Square, also called Federal Plaza, is a street intersection in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, which contains a small triangular park named Thomas Paine Park. The space is bordered by Worth Street to the north, Centre Street to the east, and Lafayette Street to the west, and is located south of Manhattan's Chinatown and east of Tribeca. It was named after a prominent Tammany Hall district leader and local saloon owner, Thomas F. "Big Tom" Foley (1852–1925).

The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse is a Classical Revival courthouse located at 40 Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of lower Manhattan in New York City. The building, designed by Cass Gilbert and his son, Cass Gilbert Jr., is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as U.S. Courthouse. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York hear cases in the courthouse, which is across the street from the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City.

The United States Court of International Trade (case citations: Int'l Trade or Intl. Trade) is a U.S. federal court that adjudicates civil actions arising out of U.S. customs and international trade laws. Seated in New York City, it exercises broad jurisdiction over most trade-related matters, and is permitted to hear and decide cases anywhere in the country, as well as abroad.The court originated with the Customs Administrative Act of 1890, which established the Board of General Appraisers as a quasi-judicial entity of the U.S. Treasury Department tasked with hearing disputes primarily concerning tariffs and import duties. In 1926, Congress replaced the Board with the United States Customs Court, an administrative tribunal with greater judicial functions, which in 1930 was made independent of the Treasury Department. In 1956, the U.S. Customs Court was reconstituted by Congress as an Article III tribunal, giving it the status and privileges of a federal court. The Customs Courts Act of 1980 established the U.S. Court of International Trade in its current form, granting it jurisdiction over all trade matters and conferring its judges with life tenure.The court's subject matter jurisdiction is limited to particular questions in international trade and customs law, though it may also decide any civil action against the U.S. government, its officers, or its agencies arising out of any law connected to international trade. As an Article III tribunal, the U.S. Court of International Trade can decide controversies in both law and equity, and is thus allowed to grant relief in virtually all means available, including money judgments, writs of mandamus, and preliminary or permanent injunctions. Led by a chief judge, the court is composed of nine judges who are appointed by the U.S. President and confirmed by the Senate. No more than five judges can be of the same political party. Cases are typically heard by just one judge, and the court operates on procedures and protocols drawn heavily from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

The Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building at 26 Federal Plaza on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City houses many federal government agencies. At over 41 stories, it is the tallest federal building in the United States. It was built in 1963–69 and was designed by Alfred Easton Poor and Kahn & Jacobs, with Eggers & Higgins as associate architects. A western addition, first announced on "inadvertently acquired land" in 1965, was built in 1975–77 and was designed by Kahn & Jacobs, The Eggers Partnership and Poor & Swanke. The building is named for Jacob K. Javits, who served as a United States Senator from New York for 24 years, from 1957 to 1981. The building falls under the jurisdiction of the United States Federal Protective Service for any and all law enforcement and protection issues. To the east of the main building is the James L. Watson Court of International Trade Building.

Worth Street is a two-way street running roughly northwest-southeast in Manhattan, New York City. It runs from Hudson Street, TriBeCa, in the west to Chatham Square in Chinatown in the east. Past Chatham Square, the roadway continues as Oliver Street, a north-south street running one-way northbound. Between West Broadway and Church Street, Worth Street is also known as Justice John M. Harlan Way in honor of the Supreme Court justice and alumnus of the nearby New York Law School. Between Centre and Baxter Streets, Worth Street is also known as the "Avenue of the Strongest", "New York's Strongest" being a nickname for the city's Department of Sanitation.The western end of Worth Street, between Hudson Street and West Broadway, abuts 60 Hudson Street, the former Western Union headquarters that later was converted into an internet hub. Worth Street passes through the cluster of government offices and courthouses centered on Foley Square. 125 Worth Street (at Centre Street) houses the headquarters of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Department of Sanitation. Additionally, the New York Supreme Court courthouses at 60 Centre Street and 80 Centre Street (the Louis J. Lefkowitz Building) and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse (Southern District of New York) at 500 Pearl Street all have entrances facing Worth Street.

Worth Street was a local station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located at Lafayette Street and Worth Street, in Civic Center, Manhattan. The Worth Street station was constructed for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. Construction of the line segment that includes the Worth Street station started on July 10 of the same year. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. The southbound platform was lengthened in the late 1940s. The station was closed on September 1, 1962, as a result of a platform lengthening project at Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall. The Worth Street station contains two abandoned side platforms and four tracks. The station was built with tile and mosaic decorations. Many of these decorations have been covered with graffiti.

Tilted Arc was a controversial public art installation by Richard Serra, displayed in Foley Federal Plaza in Manhattan from 1981 to 1989. The art work consisted of a 120-foot-long, 12-foot-high solid, unfinished plate of rust-covered COR-TEN steel. Advocates characterized it as an important work by a well-known artist that transformed the space and advanced the concept of sculpture, whereas critics focused on its perceived ugliness and saw it as ruining the site. Following an acrimonious public debate, the sculpture was removed in 1989 as the result of a federal lawsuit and has never been publicly displayed since, in accordance with the artist's wishes.

The Church of St. Andrew is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 20 Cardinal Hayes Place, Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1842. The present building was erected in 1939 through a joint effort involving Maginnis & Walsh and Robert J. Reiley in the Georgian Revival architectural style. In August 2015 St. Andrew's parish merged with that of Our Lady of Victory on William Street to form the Parish of Our Lady of Victory and St. Andrew. As of 2019, weekday Masses continued to be held twice a day at St. Andrew's.

The Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival, hosted by the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans in New York City, is one of the largest outdoors celebrations of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in the United States. Each year, in May, the festival offers music, performances, arts, food, history and corporate outreach. The first festival in 1979 grew out of the civil rights movements of that era when President Jimmy Carter signed the proclamation to declare the first week in May to be Asian American Heritage Week. The proclamation was later extended to Asian Pacific American Heritage Month for the entire month of May. The festival has continued every year to celebrate the diverse cultures of Asian Americans and their contribution to American society. It has become so large that it takes the Coalition all year to put together.A number of notable Asian American performers have performed at the festival, including Regie Cabico, George Gee with his orchestra, and Terry Watada.

The New York State Supreme Court Building, originally known as the New York County Courthouse, at 60 Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, houses the Civil and Appellate Terms of the New York State Supreme Court for the state's First Judicial District, which is coextensive with Manhattan, as well as the offices of the New York County Clerk. The granite-faced hexagonal building was designed by Guy Lowell of Boston in classical Roman style and was built between 1913 and 1927, completion having been delayed by World War I. It replaced the former New York County Courthouse on Chambers Street, popularly known as the Tweed Courthouse. Both the interior and exterior are New York City Landmarks: the exterior was designated on February 1, 1966 and the interior on March 24, 1981.

The Chatham Garden Theatre or Chatham Theatre was a playhouse in the Chatham Gardens of New York City. It was located on the north side of Chatham Street on Park Row between Pearl and Duane streets in lower Manhattan. The grounds ran through to Augustus Street. The Chatham Garden Theatre was the first major competition to the high-class Park Theatre, though in its later years it sank to the bottom of New York's stratified theatrical order, below even the Bowery Theatre. The Chatham Garden was converted to the Free Presbyterian Chatham Street Chapel in 1832.

African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street) in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. The site contains the remains of more than 419 Africans buried during the late 17th and 18th centuries in a portion of what was the largest colonial-era cemetery for people of African descent, some free, most enslaved. Historians estimate there may have been as many as 10,000–20,000 burials in what was called the Negroes Burial Ground in the 1700s. The five to six acre site's excavation and study was called "the most important historic urban archaeological project in the United States." The Burial Ground site is New York's earliest known African-American cemetery; studies show an estimated 15,000 African American people were buried here.The discovery highlighted the forgotten history of enslaved Africans in colonial and federal New York City, who were integral to its development. By the American Revolutionary War, they constituted nearly a quarter of the population in the city. New York had the second-largest number of enslaved Africans in the nation after Charleston, South Carolina. Scholars and African-American civic activists joined to publicize the importance of the site and lobby for its preservation. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and a national monument in 2006 by President George W. Bush. In 2003 Congress appropriated funds for a memorial at the site and directed redesign of the federal courthouse to allow for this. A design competition attracted more than 60 proposals. The memorial was dedicated in 2007 to commemorate the role of Africans and African Americans in colonial and federal New York City, and in United States history. Several pieces of public art were also commissioned for the site. A visitor center opened in 2010 to provide interpretation of the site and African-American history in New York.