Central Park, New York City [OC] - Lemmy.world
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Founded in 1825, Seneca Village was once home to nearly 200 residents.

Some villagers were German and Irish American.

But most of them were Black

By 1855, nearly half of them owned their own homes. They had a school, churches, gardens and voting rights because they owned land.

But in 1857, Seneca Village was torn down when the city decided it wanted to create a park.

Villagers were essentially forced to leave.

Today, researchers are trying to figure out where they went and locate their descendants.

A lot of the original landscape can still be seen in the park today.

It stretches from 82nd Street to 89th Street and Central Park West.

“We know that they used some of the stone that you see out there now to build their houses,” Marie Warsh, a historian with the Central Park Conservancy, told NBC New York.

Signs erected by the Central Park Conservancy help to commemorate and tell the story of the village and its vibrant community.

“You can really start to imagine what it may have looked like,” said Warsh.

Talks to figure out a permanent way to commemorate Seneca Village, which is not a historical landmark, are ongoing.

Those interested in learning more about the history of Seneca Village can visit the MET’s “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room” exhibition or www.centralparknyc.org.

  • TIEPilot@lemmy.world
    41·
    1 year ago

    Lets not get into how the Irish and the Black community was very close until the protestants had issues and we ended up w/ the klan.

    /Fuck the klan.

  • SpeedLimit55@lemmy.world
    281·
    1 year ago

    This type of thing has been happening to poor people for centuries. I would like to believe that comparable land was found for them elsewhere but they were likely just run out. At least the land was used for Central Park and not a bunch of mansions. That park is essential to NYC and has millions of visitors a year.

    • 1chemistdown@kbin.social
      48·
      1 year ago

      A number of years ago, a little unknown tech guy by the name of Paul Allen decided to purchase a bunch of run down storage places and warehouses in the south lake union area of Seattle. This minor character on the tech landscape went to Seattle and said I’m going to build you a park to rival Central Park and we’ll put businesses and living places around it. Seattle said “that’s not your purse! I don’t know you!” and they kicked him in the balls. So, said small businessman left and said fuck it, I’ll just develop a shit show. And this is how MAGA (Meta, Amazon, google, Apple) took over south lake union in Seattle and turned it into a commuting nightmare of epic proportions.

      Fucking Seattle! Here, take this free work of art. No! But it’s free and the people will love it. We said Fuck NO!

  • Badtouchspez@lemm.eeEnglish
    242·
    1 year ago

    The story of black people in America. Whenever they get a little bit ahead a reactionary white movement quickly stops them and tears their progress down. Then they insultingly question why the black condition is so bad.

  • Tygr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    1 year ago

    Hey, Lemmy is finally rounding that corner and actually teaching me cool stuff like the anti-API site used to. This was really awesome to read! Let’s go Lemmy!

    • UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world
      31·
      1 year ago

      Especially Florida’s new revised history. After slavery, Lincoln gave the freed slaves land in Florida and it was taken feom them.

  • mikyopii@programming.devEnglish
    62·
    1 year ago

    Public infrastructure can just as easily be a weapon to use against your enemies just as much as it can create wonderful towns and cities. Racism and classism are built into the very highways we drive on and the parks we walk through.

  • Drusas@kbin.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    This is also how Atlantic City made the tourist/casino area by the shore. New York got a much better deal out of their inhumanity.