African-American Legacy in the Cultural Landscape: Restoring cultural & historical integrity of New Jersey's forgotten African burial sites and spaces.

Cemeteries and burial grounds are sacred places intended for the dignified disposition of human remains following cultural and spiritual customs. A place to memorialize the deceased while engaging the living in remembrance, reflection, and respect.

They are sites of material evidence associated with people's lives, history, and culture and serve as a physical connection to our past. The history of neglect and destruction of African Burial Grounds reflects the social organization of our society about who has historically gone unseen and unheard. With the rise in rediscovered African Burial Grounds throughout New Jersey, historians, preservationists, descendants, community stakeholders, and memory workers of all kinds must consider the wealth of information and potential for valuable social impact and insights.

If we tell stories about our past to make sense of the present, and we highlight elements of our history to elevate who we are, then

the methods we adopt to restore these sacred cultural sites in our communities become vital to determining how we inform the present and meaningfully elevate our future.