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. The African Burial Ground is a 5 or 6-acre cemetery that was just outside the Chamber Street walls of the revolutionary era town that has grown into New York City. It probably originally contained the remains of between ten thousand and twenty thousand people. The majority of these Africans lived under harsh conditions of slavery. The remains of over 400 humans were finally recovered. They had been buried with great care and love, wrapped in linen shrouds and positioned in well-built cedar or pine coffins. Sometimes they were buried with beads or other treasured objects. Occasionally there was ornamentation on the coffins.
Although the site was shown on old maps of the city, the African Burial Ground was paved over and forgotten as the city expanded north. Initially, the federal government tried to ignore legal mandates about what to do when historic remains are uncovered. However African American New Yorkers, including Mayor David Dinkins, demanded that the remains be respected and the site be recognized as sacred space. After vigils, protests, religious observances, and community meetings construction halted until remains could be unearthed and studied and a promise was made that they would be re-interred at the site with an appropriate memorial.
The Film Festival runs through Saturday April 2 with additional screenings at CCNYs Aaron Davis Hall and Mt. Vernon's Doles Center Theatre and is open to the general public. All screenings are free.