Page 12 - The Indian EYE 062124

COMMUNITY OP-ED JUNE 21, 2024 | The Indian Eye 12

Celebrating Juneteenth with a New

Heritage Walk, Landmark, and Progress

This Juneteenth, I call on all New Yorkers to learn about and honor our city and nation’s

inspiring and troubled past and continue to build on the progress we have made. Let us
celebrate American ideals, American freedoms, and American potential, together

ERIC ADAMS
s the second Black mayor of
New York City, I am proud to
Acelebrate Juneteenth, a day
that commemorates June 19, 1865,
when every enslaved Black Ameri-
can was finally free. This is a day of
importance not just for Black Ameri- New Yorkers walk through neighborhoods like Brooklyn every day, unaware of the history right under their feet and surrounding them. To tell that
cans, but for all Americans. It is a day history, we launched “More Than a Brook: Brooklyn Abolitionist Heritage Walk” (File/Agency photo)
when the promise of freedom finally
matched Black Americans’ lived real- walkable path incorporates 19 stops Park is the only non-sectarian cem- rate for Black New Yorkers is at its
ity. It is a day when the freedom for highlighting the many landmark sites etery founded by — and specifically lowest point in half a decade.
which America is known for around that capture the borough’s rich aboli- for — New York City’s Black com- This marks the first time since
the world finally became available to tionist history. munity. The memorial park opened 2019 that the Black unemployment
a wider group of citizens. Along the way, in addition to in 1935, offering a dignified ceme- rate in New York City has been be-
However, as we all know, that seeing famous abolitionist sites, you tery for Black New Yorkers at a time low 8 percent. And between January
was only the start of a longer strug- can learn about important local when discrimination and segregation 1, 2022, and April 1, 2024, the Black
gle — a struggle for equal access historic figures, including business- excluded them from other burial sites unemployment rate in the five bor-
from housing and health care to the woman Elizabeth Gloucester, pio- and limited them to substandard facil- oughs decreased from 10.7 percent to
ballot box and boardrooms that con- neering sisters Dr. Susan Smith McK- ities and services. In a time when oth- 7.9 percent — a 26 percent decrease.
tinues to the present day. In honor of inney-Steward and educator Sarah ers turned their backs on Black New While our work is never done, our city
Juneteenth and the progress we have J. Tompkins Garnet, and Plymouth Yorkers, this park chose to open its is making real progress in delivering
made over the past centuries and de- Church preacher Henry Ward Beech- doors. The 14.88-acre burial site me- economic equity.
cades, our administration wants to er. The tour can be accessed on your morializes Black heritage and honors This Juneteenth, I call on all New
play its part in using the present to smartphone, tablet, or other device the generations of Black Americans Yorkers to learn about and honor our
reckon with our past so we can build through the Landmark Preservation who are buried there. Frederick city and nation’s inspiring and trou-
a better future. Commission’s website. With this in- Douglass Memorial Park offered a bled past and continue to build on
New Yorkers walk through neigh- teractive tour, our city can celebrate dignified and dedicated space for the the progress we have made. Let us
borhoods like Brooklyn every day, the heroes who stood up against in- Black community to honor those who celebrate American ideals, American
unaware of the history right under justice, risked their lives, and fought transitioned. But, our remembrance freedoms, and American potential,
their feet and surrounding them. To for the freedom they deserved. of Juneteenth cannot be just symbolic, together. And let us start right here,
tell that history, we launched “More The city’s abolitionist history but substantive. in the most diverse city on the globe, a
Than a Brook: Brooklyn Abolitionist lives across all five boroughs. In Stat- As recently as last January, Black place where those from all walks of life
Heritage Walk,” an interactive audio en Island’s Oakwood Heights, we are New Yorkers were four times more live side by side, proud to call them-
tour that explores Brooklyn’s history commemorating our shared history likely to be unemployed than white selves by one name: New Yorkers.
as a critical neighborhood for the Na- by designating the Frederick Dou- New Yorkers, but, thanks to our ef-
tional Abolitionist Movement and the glass Memorial Park as a landmark. forts, we have been able to narrow Eric Adams is the Mayor of
Underground Railroad. The 4.5-mile The Frederick Douglass Memorial this gap, and now the unemployment New York City, NY

www.TheIndianEYE.com