History, again will be made on Saturday, October 4, 2025, when the story of African-Americans whose graves were thought to have been paved over by commercial interests many decades ago is literally exhumed at a public Lecture in Staten Island, New York, United States of America (USA).
The “Talks of the Town: American Graveyard and Family History” Historic Town Lecture Series, will hold from 2:00PM to 3:30PM at Historic Richmond Town 441 Clarke Avenue, Staten Island, NY, 10306, United States.
It will involve a talk between iconic filmmaker, Heather Quinlan, historian, Debbie-Ann Paige, and Historic Richmond Town’s curator Gabriella Leone.
They will be exploring, according to a notice by the organizers of the Lecture, the history of Cherry Lane, where in 1954, real estate developers seized the Cherry Lane Cemetery, the final resting place of African-Americans from New York to the Carolinas.
“Among those buried there was Benjamin Prine, a formerly enslaved Staten Islander and 1812 war veteran. The cemetery was paved over in the 1960s for a Shell station and later a shopping plaza, but its story lives on with the documentary American Graveyard, genealogical research, and the reunion of descendant families,” the notice said further.
Besides an exploration of the history of Cherry Lane, the experts will also talk about the making of the American Graveyard, the spectacular documentary on the sad saga, as well as discuss how people can begin to uncover their family histories through records, censuses, church documents, and archival materials.
Heather, who made the documentary, American Graveyard, will also “show never-before-seen clips of the film,” which is about the cemetery that was paved over, but whose story has refused to remain buried.
All are invited to the program.
