Buyers of NYC’s paved-over historic Black cemetery face strict legal restrictions

A parking lot in Queens that was built over an 18th century burial site for free Black people is now up for sale for $10 million — but strict rules around how the new owner can remove bodies from the site may complicate the transaction. 

New York’s Unknown Burial Site Protection Act states that anyone other than an archaeologist, hired at the property owners expense, who "intentionally removes human remains or funerary objects from a burial site” may face misdemeanor charges, Greg B. Smith writes for The City Reporter.

“‘While the law does not explicitly prohibit the use of the property, any activity that disturbs a grave would violate the law,” Christina Reith, the state archaeologist, said through a spokesperson,” Smith reports. 

The law also allows any cultural groups connected to the site — in this case, the St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was located near the burial site until moving a mile away in the 1930s — to oversee the removal of the remains via a “cultural monitor.”