SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Originally proposed by a former San Francisco artist, a plaque marking the site of an 18th-century slave market on Wall Street has been dedicated by New York City officials.
The plaque commemorates the open-air slave market that operated there from 1711 to 1762.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said at Saturday’s dedication ceremony that the slaves played a vital role in building New York City even though their time on earth “literally did not belong to them.”
City Council member Jumaane Williams said New York was “built on the backs of slaves.”
The marker was first proposed by Christopher Cobb, a Brooklyn-based artist and writer who received his art bachelor’s and master’s from the San Francisco Art Institute and University of California, Berkeley, respectively. His art is described by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as “characterized by a subversive wit and by formalism rooted in an anti-materialism.”
The language on the plaque was prepared by the Parks Department and Landmarks Preservation Commission in collaboration with Christopher Moore, former director of research at the Schomburg Center for Black Culture.