By Anthony Payero
(THE BRONX, N.Y.) The Bronx's Van Cortlandt Park turned into a park after it was once a wheat plantation and it replaced an African burial site, according to News 12.
In 1905, while the New York and Northern Railroad was under construction, workers discovered unidentified graves near the formal colonial burial ground. Per News 12, the graves were believed to have been set for enslaved Africans.
Back in 2019, the New York City Parks Department held a ground-breaking radar study where it discovered coffins in that same section of Van Cortlandt.
As a result, the section of the park will be consecrated on Juneteenth by the Parks Department, Van Cortlandt Park House Museum, Van Cortlandt Park Alliance and Enslaved People's Project.
"We wanted just to make sure to honor them and even if we're not in the exact right spot, this is a symbolic honoring and making sure that we remember their effort and their work here," said Stephanie Ehrlich, of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance.
Saturday's ceremony will be available via live stream on the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance's Facebook page at 11 a.m.
The slaves who worked on the Van Cortlandt plantation were set free 200 years ago in 1821, according to News 12.