Forgotten, Fought For, Forsaken

Today’s National Park Site feature is the first in NYC, a ferry ride across the harbor from my apartment. My first visit a few years ago to the African Burial Ground National Monument was a lesson in the overreach of capitalism that has been allowed to decimate communities and history for too long. For people who have not heard of this site, the NPS intended to mark “the oldest and largest known excavated burial ground in North America for both free and enslaved Africans.” Remains discovered in excavation during preparation for a new building were the impetus for community preservation efforts. The film shown at the NPS site details the upsetting history of establishing this monument.

The fight for appropriate respect and commemoration for the subjugation of communities is ever ongoing. The New York Preservation Archive Project provides more information about the fight for protected status and an educational center. In New York, there are other important places for memory and preservation.