Film Festival Commemorates 25th Anniversary of the African Burial Ground

 

By Alan Singer

Social studies educator, Hofstra University (My opinions, of course, are my own.)

Mount Vernon, New York based Media Magic is collaborating with the National Park Service New York African Burial Ground Visitors Center to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Burial Ground’s rediscovery with a Film Festival. It opens with a screening of the documentary “Then I’ll Be Free To Travel Home: the Legacy of the NY African Burial Ground,” Thursday, March 31 at 6 PM at the African Burial Ground Visitors Center in lower Manhattan. It will be followed by a Panel Discussion and Filmmaker Q&A. It is recommended that people arrive by 5:30 PM. The African Burial Ground Visitors Center is located at 290 Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets. Entrance is through airport-style security.

In 1991 construction workers started digging the foundation for a new $300 million federal government building in lower Manhattan. The project was forced to halt when workers discovered a burial ground with wooden coffins and human remains. Investigators realized this was a colonial burial ground for enslaved and free Africans who were not permitted to be buried in church cemeteries, even if they had converted to Christianity.

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Source: The Huffington Post