The graveyard, along with the original New Harlem settlement, was paved over in 1811 to make room for New York City’s grid redesign.
Patricia Singletary, the current pastor of the Elmendorf Church, the first woman to hold the title at this successor to the first Dutch church in Harlem, had been arguing that the African burial ground still existed somewhere in East Harlem, according to Mr. Campbell.
This was confirmed in 2008, when Department of Transportation employees unearthed a 17th-century African gravesite while refurbishing a Harlem bridge, according to local reports.
The bus depot on the site was closed in 2014 as a result of community pressure to preserve the graveyard. The site is now a candidate for a residential development, reports the Times, one that would include a memorial for the community buried underneath.
“Many things come full circle, but it’s nice to see that not all things are permanently forgotten in the never ending push towards progress,” wrote Campbell of the recent discovery of the bones in The Brooklyn Quarterly.
“Still, I wonder what the memorial will look like and what it will mean for the people who live there now,” he wrote.
Article Appeared @http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0124/In-Harlem-African-American-colonial-era-graveyard-confirmed