Honoring the African-American Experience

Foley Square Historical Medallions, African Burial Ground

Designed by CRI, fabricated by Sculptor Gregg Le Fevre
Foley Square, Reade Street & Lafayette Street, Manhattan

This bronze medallion is one of five that commemorate various epochs in the life of Foley Square and its environs. This particular relief sculpture acknowledges the presence underfoot of the so-called African Burial Ground, in which the remains of as many as 10,000 men, women, and children were interred between 1712 and 1794. Its central image consists of a skeleton and broken shackles.