Burial Grounds

How To Be American: The History of Immigration and Migration

Communities don’t always have all the facts they need to reconstruct past realities, nor do institutions sometimes have all the histories to preserve the past. We'll talk to Lauren O’Brien, a Lead Project Scholar at the Tenement Museum, about a new tour, coming to the Museum, that will help us reconstruct the forgotten histories of Black migrants in Lower Manhattan. We begin our story in a Black-owned Tavern, Uncle Pete Almack’s Cellar, in the notorious Five Points neighborhood, a cultural hot-spot for the intermingling of African American and Irish residents. What does this hot-spot tell us about Black culture and placemaking before the infamous Draft Riots of 1863? And what happened to the 10,300 Black residents who all but vanished from the Five Points after the riots? We’ll turn to Lauren O’Brien to uncover a Pre-Harlem World that’s been buried for more than 156 years, and meet with Derrick L. Head, National Park Service Ranger and Historian, at the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan for a deeper look at New York City’s Black History.