Queens Borough Prez Pushes City to Buy Paved-Over Black Cemetery

For decades, a stretch of asphalt in Flushing has quietly covered over something far more significant than a parking lot. Beneath the pavement lie the remains of Black and Native New Yorkers buried in the nineteenth century, their graves long forgotten by the city that paved them over. Now, the Queens borough president is pressing the city to purchase the site outright, a move that would transform a neglected lot into a long-overdue memorial.

The burial ground's history is a study in erasure. Established in the mid-1800s as a resting place for communities marginalized by the era's segregated cemeteries, the site fell into disrepair as the neighborhood changed. By the 1930s, the city had paved over the graves, using the land for municipal purposes while the dead remained beneath. Generations of descendants and local advocates have spent years documenting the site's significance, pressing for recognition.

A Reckoning Decades in the Making

The borough president's proposal reframes the question from one of acknowledgment to one of ownership. Buying the land would give the city a clear mandate to treat the site as sacred ground rather than surplus property. It is a meaningful step, but also a symbolic one: the purchase alone cannot restore what was lost. The harder work lies in designing a memorial that honors the dead, educating the public, and ensuring that the site is never again treated as disposable.

The broader significance extends beyond Queens. Across the city, similar burial grounds have been rediscovered, forcing a reckoning with how urban development has erased communities of color. If the city follows through, it would signal a willingness to confront that history head-on. The parking lot may one day become a place of reflection, but the true measure of this effort will be whether the city treats the memory of those buried there with the dignity they were denied in life.