Black burial site's fate stirs emotions in N.H.

[AmyStrange]

Black burial site's fate stirs emotions in N.H.
By Clare Kittredge, Globe Correspondent | October 17, 2004

FROM: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/10/17/black_burial_sites_fate_stirs_emotions_in_nh/
Portsmouth, N.H., attorney John P. McGee Jr. finds it abhorrent to drive over the spot where untold numbers of black people were buried several hundred years ago in unmarked graves. He wants the city of Portsmouth to honor the site, even if it means shutting down a city street.

''What is disturbing to me is that a decision was made in the 18th century to pave over those graves and, in my opinion, desecrate them," said McGee at a public meeting in Portsmouth on the issue this summer. ''I don't care if they're African-Americans or some other ethnic group or Yankees; the fact that they were paved over and that now cars go over them is extremely disturbing to me."

McGee now sits on a special committee that is considering how the city should honor the remains of the black residents unearthed during a street renovation project last October.

On Oct. 27, the African Burying Ground Committee is scheduled to meet at the intersection of Court and Chestnut streets, where the human remains were dug up last fall, to discuss how they and others still buried there might best be remembered.

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[NEOBuckeye]

1. Paving over history... All too typical of this country.

[bluedeminredstate]

2. That'll be tricky

I know that part of Portsmouth and it's around Strawberry Bank and all the historic buildings. Very tight and narrow streets intersect back there. I don't know how they can do it. I am glad they're thinking about a solution though.