The African Burial Ground represents a unique opportunity

and responsibility for all of us  to tell Our Story to the world…

... and to specifically honor the memories of the ancestral Africans who  have passed.

It’s a story and history of both extreme sacrifice and profound  contributions that Africans have made to the creation of the United  States of America.

The African Burial Ground Memorial serves not only as a memorial to  educate the descendant community but also to educate the world community  at large.

No longer should one be able to walk past this site or through lower  Manhattan and not know, understand, acknowledge and respect the important contributions ancestral Africans have made to this district and the nation.

Our generation has been entrusted with this awesome responsibility. We  are honored and we embrace it in honor of the memory of those ancestral  Africans who are buried here so that their sacrifices were not in vain.

We embrace it so that all of us today will begin a new phase in the  process of educating ourselves and the world about the importance of  this site and everything it represents.

We embrace it for our children and all future generations so that they  may come to know, understand, acknowledge, respect and be proud  of their history.

– Rodney Leon, Designer, African Burial Ground Permanent Memorial