Seneca Village: a community lost

    

    Seneca Village is a neighborhood lost to the development of Central Park.  As the free Black population increased, racial tensions rose in lower Manhattan. So, Black people began to move uptown and purchased cheap land. Slowly, they began to create a community with homes, schools, churches, and the means to vote. The community was made up of 300 educated middle-class laboring families. As the neighborhood grew, it became home to European immigrants, making Seneca Village an interracial community. However, in 1853 the white elite desired and proposed a park to compensate for the overpopulation of lower Manhattan. The land for the park contained Seneca Village and other communities. These communities were referred to as "Shantytowns," "N****r Village," and "Squatter's Village" to make the displacement less problematic. Despite Seneca Village residents fighting the park proposal,  their land was seized and destroyed. 

    The city's attempted reconciliation with Central Park's history was a temporary exhibit dedicated to Seneca Village. However, that solution is temporary and doesn't call for "true reparations." A simple and good solution to start would be to make the exhibit permanent. Second, the land in the park that was once Seneca Village can be renamed " Seneca Village of Central Park" with a dedication to the community's founders. These two efforts would be most beneficial to the current beneficiaries of the park, which are the general public and the government. It would honor the past residents and their history. However, the two resolutions do not settle the loss of intergenerational wealth. A more complex solution would be to track down the descendants of the residents of Seneca Village and provide financial reparations.