The “Negro’s Burying Ground” situated on the west side of Christie Street (then First Street) in 1797 (Taylor Robert Plan)

The Second African Burial Ground was originally located between Bowery and Forsyth Street, and also Stanton and Rivington Street. It was active between 1795-1853 after the first African Burial Ground was closed in 1794. In 1853, the free Black community was displaced due to gentrification of the Lower East Side.

The African Society, a group composed of about 30 or so free Black Episcopalians, established the burial ground as “place to Bury Black persons of Every denomination and Description whatever in this City whether Bond or Free.”

However in 1827, the ownership of the Second Burial Ground was transferred to the trustees of St. Philip’s Church, (founded in 1809) as the first African American Episcopal parish in New York City. The cemetery continued to serve as a burial ground for the City’s Black community, and, although the actual number of burials is unknown, an estimated 5,000 individuals were interred there.

The burial area stretches also to where is now the New Museum and also within the M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden. The remains founded in the community garden were moved to the Cypress Cemetery in Brooklyn.