State Attorney General Letitia James on Friday announced she is intervening in the pending foreclosure sale of a parking lot in Elmhurst, Queens, that sits on top of an African burial ground.
James filed a motion Friday morning asking for a court order declaring that whoever purchases the property “knows exactly who is buried there and is aware of their legal obligation to protect them.”
“Every New Yorker deserves to rest in peace and that includes the people buried on this land generations ago,” she said. “My office will not allow a foreclosure sale to become yet another disrespectful event in this burial ground’s unjustly troubled history.”
James’ announcement comes after Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. demanded that the city buy the property and turn it into a memorial honoring the slaves and former slaves who are buried there. A press conference at the site Friday to press Mayor Zohran Mamdani to step in lead by Richards is scheduled for Friday.
Other voices calling for the mayor to take control of the property include the Rev. Kimberly Detherage of St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church, which once owned the property and retains stewardship over the remains buried there, and Queens Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, whose district includes the site.
Mamdani has declined so far to respond to the call for the city to buy the site but has instead pointed out that there’s an application before the Landmarks Preservation Commission to formally declare the site a landmark.
The multiple calls for intervention follow The City Reporter’s recent disclosure that the owner of the lot at 47-11 90th St. turned it into an illegal parking lot housing junked cars, including abandoned vehicles towed there under a program run by the NYPD.
Records indicate the cemetery dates back to 1818. In 1828, the year after slavery was abolished in New York state, the site was purchased by the leaders of what would become St. Mark’s AME. The church sold the property in the 1930s, and a factory was later built there. The factory owners sold it to a limited liability corporation, 90 Queens LLC, in 2009, which then demolished the building with a plan to put up luxury condos.
The condo plan stalled in 2011 when workers using a backhoe struck an iron coffin containing the remains of a 25-year-old African American woman. Subsequent investigation of the site by archaeological teams found that hundreds of human remains were likely still there.
The owner of the site, a limited liability corporation called 90 Queens LLC, defaulted on the mortgage there in 2022. Last year, they paved it over and opened up a parking lot. The city Department of Buildings soon after deemed the lot illegal, issuing multiple violations and ordering that it be shut down. (On Thursday DOB spokesperson Andrew Rudansky said as of earlier this week all the vehicles had been removed from the site).
Councilmember Krishnan told The City Reporter that he supports Donovan’s push to get the city to buy the property, stating, “This is hallowed ground even though the current developer hasn’t treated it that way; clearly the people buried there deserve a memorial that recognizes their lives. They deserve a memorial that honors their lives.”
James said her office is intervening under the state’s Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act, which makes it illegal for anyone to “remove, relocate, handle or otherwise disturb human remains found there until specific legal procedures for identifying and notifying descendants and culturally affiliated groups are completed.”
St. Mark’s AME is the culturally affiliated group that still has a say in what happens to the remains still buried there.
James said that “given the prior disturbances there,” she “is concerned that without intervention, prospective buyers could take ownership with no notice that they would be legally responsible for protecting and properly handling the human remains on the land.”
The site is now up for sale under a procedure handled by a court-appointed referee. James asked the court to ensure the referee includes a copy of her motion and the text of the Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act in materials provided to every prospective buyer.
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
The post AG Letitia James Moves to Protect Queens African Burial Ground appeared first on The City Reporter.
