New York City’s African Burial Ground

In 1991, construction workers in lower Manhattan unearthed an African burial ground, the final resting place of some 15,000 enslaved African captives brought to New York in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to build the city and provide the labor for its thriving economy. The discovery sparked controversy as the African American public held protests and prayer vigils over the following two years in order to stop the federal (US General Services Administration) building project that nearly destroyed the site. A US congressional hearing led by Illinois Congressman Gus Savage would result in agreements between New York Mayor David Dinkins, Savage, and Senator Alphonse D’Amato that compelled the US GSA to cease construction on part of the site at 290 Broadway. Public discussions ensued for another two years to determine what would be done to commemorate the lives of the African builders of colonial New York City.