The Flatbush African Burial Ground (FABG), located at 2286 Church Avenue in the heart of Flatbush, Brooklyn, is a site of profound historical and cultural significance. This burial ground, first identified on an 1855 map, is believed to have been in use from at least the 1700s until the abolition of slavery in New York in 1827.
Entrance to the Flatbush African Burial Ground. Photo by Beyond My Ken, Wikimedia Commons
Early References and Historical Context
One of the earliest cartographic references to the Flatbush African Burial Ground is an 1855 map by Teunis G. Bergen, showing the "Negro Burying Ground" to the northeast of Erasmus Hall High School, which Bergen attended.
The ad hoc burial ground is connected to the Flatbush Reformed Church (formerly the Dutch Reformed Church built in 1654) situated one block away, itself a landmark location. According to historians, African progenitors who built the Church were deemed unfit to be buried at its adjacent cemetery with former colonizers and slave holding families the likes of the Vanderbilts, Lefferts and Livingstons.
The land on which the FABG sits is the unceded territory of the Lenape people, specifically the Canarsee. The Lenape were forcibly removed from their homelands through broken treaties, war, and outright murder. Not long after the Dutch arrived in Lenapehoking in the early 1600s, they began a process of removing the Lenape from their homelands. They used enslaved labor to clear those lands for roads, churches, houses, and farming.
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By 1790, over 30% of Brooklyn’s residents were of African descent, and the proportion in Flatbush was even higher, where 378 of the town’s 390 Black residents were enslaved. The Dutch Reformed Church, built in 1654, did not allow enslaved persons to be buried on their grounds.
Nineteenth-century newspapers listed obituaries for Eve and Phyllis, formerly enslaved women who were interred in the African Burial Ground. Organizers seek to honor them with a painted headstone.
On Sunday, March 25, 1810, a 110-year-old "negro woman named Eve" who was owned by Lawrence Voorhes, and previously Lawrence Ditmas for 80 years, was "piously interred in the African burying ground of the village of Flatbush, attended by a great concourse of the people of colour".
In 2000, an archaeological study confirmed the presence of some remains at the site, and last year an 1855 map of the area was made available by the Center for Brooklyn History listing a “negro burial ground” at the Bedford and Church intersection.
Further, since the early 20th century, the plot of land has been the site of numerous construction projects, each of which have led to the discovery of human remains. For example, a 1904 news story on the construction of the neighborhood’s sewer system reported the discovery of a skeleton “believed to be that of a negro, a burial ground for colored people having been located at this spot at one time.” While the skeleton was fully intact at the time of its discovery, the article reports, it fell apart during removal and children from a nearby school then “placed the skull on the ends of a stick and paraded around with it.
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The agricultural products grown in Dutch Brooklyn were sold across the river in the Dutch colony of Nieuw Amsterdam. Until the building of the Erie Canal, Brooklyn was the second largest producer of agricultural products in North America, second only to its neighbor Queens. But enforcing enslavement proved to be difficult and less lucrative than in the Southern colonies. Slavery was abolished in New York in 1827.
Community Activism and Preservation Efforts
Leading the charge against the desecration of the unmarked “slave” cemetery is African Graves Matter (AGM), an organization founded by the late community activist Harriet Hines. Dr. Jackie Cody, chair of the Education Committee of the National Action Network, took over the charge along with AGM Co-Founder Rev. Livingston.
The community outrage ignited in October of 2020 when then New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the area’s former Council member representative Mathieu Eugene announced plans to build a housing complex at the vacant site at 2286 Church Avenue just behind Erasmus Hall High School. Superstitious beliefs aside, it is largely agreed that to build anything other than a monument or museum on top of the bones of enslaved Africans is a disgrace of a high seismic magnitude.
By that time several other groups were working on saving the site with weekly community clean ups and awareness actions. Rev. Livingston and company turned up the heat by taking to the streets in demonstrations at Brooklyn Borough Hall and in front of the Reformed Church.
“The journey of Africans in America is an incredible one because we were never supposed to survive,” said Rev. Livingston. “We stand on the shoulders of these Africans who went on before us for centuries. By creating a monument to them we are teaching lessons to our young people so they can see themselves differently.
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The political support for the cause is coming from US Senator Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Alma Adams who have tabled bills at the federal level.
Who Manages The African Burial Ground National Monument? - Anthropology Insights
As we continue to work hard and protect the FABG, we believe that Black voices in a Black movement with enslaved and free African/Indigenous ancestors remains which is the scope of focus. It is required and much needed to protect the history from being erased.
The first-grade teacher co-leads the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition. Her group was the driving force in a process that convinced the City of New York to abandon its plan for a high-rise on a site where Africans enslaved by Dutch settlers were laid to rest several hundred years ago.
Ongoing Debates and Future Visions
Both sides of the divide are passionate about their arguments for the best development of the site. Some say the proposed affordable housing is a dire need in the area. But to the AGM, preservation of the site goes beyond the obvious.
While the plan is backed by Brooklyn Borough President and Mayor-elect Eric Adams, a local coalition of organizers is arguing that housing is not the right use for the land in light of its history, significance, and sanctity.
“When they make these affordable housing plans, they fail to inform the community and provide those details,” said Harriet Hines, a former city council candidate and organizer with #Justice1654, a coalition working to preserve the burial ground.
However, while many community groups are united in their opposition to the housing development project, there’s less consensus on the question of exactly how the burial ground should be commemorated. Some organizers are advocating for the space to be home to a museum or memorial-a reflective and potentially restorative project akin to the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan that is now under the management of the National Parks Service.
Rather than a new development, organizers wish to see the site publicly and perpetually commemorated. One of the things that I would love to do with the walking tours is teach young people in the community how to do them so that they can monetize them and become tour guides [while] creating more community awareness,” Sabio said.
Organizers say that opposing the housing development and creating a memorial is crucial because the land is, first and foremost, sacred, and those interred there deserve to rest undisturbed and at peace.
“There was once a Jewish school built on top of that site that only recently got demolished-so had that school not been demolished, this little piece of land wouldn’t even be vacant and available,” Hines said. “We have bones under the street of Church Avenue and Bedford. We have bones under the post office, we have bones under the gas station, we’ve got bones under Erasmus High School!
The cemetery’s manicured lawns and magisterial headstones make it a popular tourist attraction, in stark contrast to the Flatbush African burial ground, which doesn’t even have a formal placard acknowledging its history.
However, Hines says that the movement “is definitely growing” as more community members learn about the burial ground. #Justice1654 meets in front of the lot weekly on Wednesdays for a rally and street demonstration, and the Bedford-Church African Burial Ground Coalition hosts walking tours every Saturday.
Among the symbols adorning the gate surrounding the Bedford-Church lot is the Sankofa, a symbol that has been heavily incorporated into other African Burial Ground monuments elsewhere in the city.
The Role of the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition
GrowhouseNYC, the organization that leads the Bedford-Church African Burial Ground Coalition, learned about the burial ground while researching city-owned property during a project aimed at developing a community land trust. Shanna Sabio, co-founder and executive director of GrowhouseNYC, also came across a petition to preserve the burial ground created by a non-Black collective.
The coalition wants Flatbush residents of African descent to sit at the table when decisions on how to memorialize formerly enslaved people like Eve are made. Responsibility for the burial ground now lies with the NYC Parks Department, which is yet to announced its plans.
Shanna Sabio, one of Shantell Jones’ co-leaders at the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition is opposed to any construction, especially without proper consultation of residents. “We’re not building on our ancestor’s bones,” the 49-year-old non-profit manager said. “Flatbush was the heart of Brooklyn in the 17th century and Black people built it.”
Archaeological and Academic Perspectives
Dr. Elizabeth Meade, an archaeologist, noted in her 2020 dissertation how selective preservation and erasure of these sites is often based in “institutionalized colonial power structures” that continue to govern land use and reinforce what-and who-is important enough to remember. Meade’s work has focused on New York City’s cemeteries from the 17th century to the present.
“To understand the history and significance of burial grounds, you have to go back to the African Burial Ground, which was found in the 1990s in Lower Manhattan,” said Nan A. Rothschild, research professor at Barnard College who published a book on the archaeological history of New York last year.
In Flatbush, the battle over the future of the burial ground is still ongoing.
Key Dates in the History of the Flatbush African Burial Ground
The following table provides a timeline of key events related to the Flatbush African Burial Ground:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 17th to early 19th Century | Burial grounds established for enslaved and freed people of African descent on land owned by the Flatbush Reformed Church. |
| 1840s | Much of today’s site deeded to the Town of Flatbush for the construction of Village School No. 1. Human remains were found during excavation for the basement of Flatbush School No. 1 in 1842. |
| 1860s | Human remains found during construction of Bedford Avenue near the site. |
| 2001 | Physical evidence of the burial ground affirmed through archeological testing. Disarticulated human remains found in the upper layer of soil aligning with the now known historical boundaries of the FABG from the 1855 map. |
| October 8, 2021 | Then Brooklyn Borough President and co-chair of task force Eric Adams submitted letter to Mayor de Blasio expressing preference for memorial and open space, rather than housing, to be sited at the Flatbush African Burial Ground. |
| March 6, 2025 | CB14 Public Hearing on the Final Design. The Park’s Department Brooklyn Commissioner and the Lead Architect presented the proposed final design to Community Board 14. |
