by
Narration 1:
[AMB: Drumming from Ancestral Heritage Celebration underneath narration].
The five-acre African Burial site near Ground Zero was packed on the first of October with people from as close as Brooklyn and as far away as Angola . They came for an afternoon of speeches and music in celebration of their ancestors. (0:16)
(AMB: Sound of Drumming comes up)
The bones were found fourteen years ago, as construction workers prepared the foundation for a new federal building. It took years to discover they were the remains of 419 slaves who built and lived in New York as early as the 17th Century. Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Howard Dodson says the site unearthed an important part of the city's history. (0:24)
AX 1: Howard Dodson
The only good thing that came out of the unearthing of the ancestral remains was the Interest It provokes In understanding the place and roll of people of African decent In the making of New York City (0:14)
Narration 2:
Since 1991, the fate of the burial ground has been unclear, as federal government and community groups fought over what to do with the site. The General Services Administration wanted to continue construction. African American activists wanted their ancestors honored with a memorial. The Congressional Subcommittee on Construction supported the idea. Then, GSA refused to pay the researcher leading efforts to identify remains, claiming he squandered $5 million dollars. Things started moving again in 2001. GSA spokeswoman Renee Miscione says new leadership in GSA is to thank. (0:35)
AX 2: Renee Miscione
Mr. Perry our administrator has taken a deep personal interest in this project. His involvement has certainly helped to move this project along to where it is right now. (0:11)