A historic visit

Jet, Oct 11, 2004

Caption: A HISTORIC VISIT: Howard Dodson (r), director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, welcomes H.E. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and chairperson of the African Union, to the African Burial Ground Memorial Site-the nation's earliest known African-American cemetery-in Lower Manhattan. While in New York President Obasanjo made remarks about slavery, the slave trade and the need for reconciliation between Africans and African-Americans. On behalf of his country he also donated a plaque to commemorate the site. The visit, which brings international awareness of the contributions of Africans to the history of New York and the nation, marks the first official journey by an African head of state to the site since last year's re-interment of the remains of more than 400 slaves and free Blacks who were buried at the cemetery. The site, closed in 1794, was discovered during construction of a federal office tower in 1991.

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