Presented by Professor Larry H. Spruill of Morehouse College, The Unfinished Work lecture showcases the Westchester African American Heritage Trails (Yonkers, Eastchester, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle). Dr. Spruill, lead consultant on the African American Heritage Trails project, will discuss how the general public can engage in preservation of local African American history. Presented by YPL in conjunction with Sarah Lawrence College, through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Traditional Westchester history focuses on wealthy European families, emphasizing their ability to settle and transform the bountiful region bordered by the Atlantic Sound, Hudson River and the Bronx and Hutchinson in between. Westchester County’s African American Heritage Trail (2000) sites are historical frameworks lifting ordinary and extraordinary people of color associated with their communities from public obscurity. They refresh forgotten lives, helping us to see their consequential existence, enabling a better understanding of our collective past and present.