A group of Queens elected officials say they’re determined to find funding for the city to purchase the Elmhurst site of a historic Black cemetery and turn it into a memorial to the freed slaves buried there.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. recently called on the administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani to step up and buy the plot at 47-11 90th St., where the owners paved over sacred ground to put up a parking lot. Abandoned vehicles towed in an NYPD program wound up littering the site.
The mayor has so far remained noncommittal, saying only that the city Landmarks Preservation Commission needs to first decide whether to landmark the lot. Asked by The City Reporter last week about the drumbeat of officials and community leaders calling for the city to purchase the site, he responded, “That is a conversation that’s ongoing. We’ll be sure to get back to you.”
Richards, on the other hand, says he’s all in on finding funding necessary to buy the site and create some type of memorial to honor those who are buried there.
“I am committed. I have a $120 million budget,” he said, noting a similar project to erect a Holocaust memorial on the grounds of Queens Borough Hall for which he’s allocated $3 million.
“It’s a process,” he said. “Let’s not slow-walk this. Let’s not let this get caught up in bureaucracy.”
Councilmember Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens), whose district includes the site, is also on board to find a way to pay for a land purchase and subsequent memorial.
“The city must step in and buy this plot of land because the formerly enslaved Black New Yorkers who shaped Newtown and Elmhurst deserve dignity and a proper memorial. We must rewrite this injustice,” Krishnan said. “I plan to work with our elected partners to allocate funding to ensure this can happen.”
The parking lot was shut down by the Department of Buildings and the property is in foreclosure and for sale, with various real estate sites listing asking prices ranging from $7 million to $11 million.
None reference the presence of the burial ground, nor do they note state Attorney General Letitia James has filed a motion in the foreclosure case asking a judge to require the seller to notify potential buyers of the presence of the cemetery there, and requiring they properly address the human remains buried there as required by the state Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act.
The site dates back to 1818 and was purchased in 1828 — the year after slaves were freed in New York state — by the founders of what would become the St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church. The church later sold the property in the 1930s and moved to nearby Jackson Heights, but, according to current law, remains the steward over the property and has a say in what becomes of the burial ground.
St. Mark’s Pastor Kimberly Detherage has joined in the call for the city to buy the land and put up a memorial to honor those buried there. She joined several Queens politicians, including state Sens. Leroy Comrie and Jessica Ramos, at a Sept. 18th press conference at the site arranged by Richards to call for a memorial there.
Comrie said he would work with Richards and others “to ensure this sacred ground is protected for generations to come.”
“I am committed to working with Borough President Richards, the city and community leaders to identify and support funding for the acquisition of this historic burial ground and the creation of a memorial green space,” Ramos said.
MORE: Paved-Over Historic Black Cemetery Is Now Up For Sale, Lawyer Says
Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, who defeated Ramos in the June Democratic primary, said in a statement that officials “should be doing everything we can to preserve this history, protect the site, and create a lasting memorial.”
Councilmember Shanel Thomas-Henry (D-Queens) said she would sponsor funding toward acquiring the property and creating a memorial there. “We cannot change the indignities that have already occurred on this land, but we can decide what happens next,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens), who also attended the press conference, said her ability to obtain federal funds for a purchase is blocked “due to current restrictions in the Republican-led House” that bar members of Congress “from providing discretionary funding for memorials.”
“We would support obtaining funding if this changes,” she added.
The saga over the burial site dates to 2011, when workers doing excavation for a failed luxury condo project there struck an iron coffin containing the remains of a free Black woman.
A firm that subsequently performed archaeological work at the site, Chrysalis Archaeology Consultants, believes there are at least 100 more bodies still buried there. The firm currently has possession of human remains of 10 people who were exhumed during their examination of the site and is keeping them in “secure storage.”
Last week Stuart Zisholtz, a lawyer for the firm, filed papers in the foreclosure case in support of the attorney general’s motion to ensure any buyer properly addresses the existence of the burial site. He suggested one potential source of funding to do that: the federal African American Burial Grounds Preservation Program.
The program authorizes the National Park Service to offer $3 million in annual grants “to aid preservation efforts across the country, to research, identify, document, preserve and interpret historic African American burial grounds.”
“This program is something the parties may wish to apply for in helping to offset the required costs of the NYS Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act,” Zisholtz wrote.
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