After 16 Years, a Burial Ground Memorial

Sixteen years after the surprise discovery of the African burial ground on Duane Street, city and federal officials will formally dedicate a memorial Friday in Lower Manhattan.

Discovered in 1991 while digging the foundation for the Foley Square Federal Building, the burial ground contains some 15,000 African Americans 25 feet below street level who are believed to have been buried in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The seven-acre site's discovery prompted a major archaeological effort to learn more about the early history of the city's African population, as well as a movement to memorialize the dead. It also began a long series of controversies. Advocates, including Mayor Dinkins, led a campaign to halt construction at the site, which they consider sacred ground. A Howard University professor commissioned to lead the excavation of the burial ground, Michael Blakey, accused the federal government of providing inadequate time and funds. In 2003, the city held a somber ceremony to rebury the remains of some 419 men, women, and children who died between 1612 and 1794. In 2006, President Bush declared the burial ground a national monument. "This has been a long time coming," one of the memorial's organizers, Howard Dodson, told reporters yesterday.

The new memorial, designed by architect Rodney Leon, features a 25-foot-tall tent-shaped structure, known as the "ancestral chamber," flanked by two reflecting pools that open onto a circular court, which is engraved with a map of Africa and the Americas on the floor.

The map contains the age and gender of some of the dead, whose names are not known. A dedication on the north side of the chamber reads: "For all those who were lost. For all those who were stolen. For all those who were left behind. For all those who are not forgotten." The memorial is built from both African and American stone.

The dedication Friday will include speakers such as Mayor Bloomberg, Maya Angelou, and Rep. Charles Rangel.

In the evening, a candlelight procession will march to the memorial, which will be lit for the first time by fire from the Statue of Liberty, from Castle Clinton.

The next day will feature afternoon music and dance performances in Foley Square as the site opens to the public.