How This New App Can Teach You About Forgotten Histories by Chad Small

The virtual Staten Island African American Heritage Tour brings Staten Island’s Black History right to your fingertips.

This year’s police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd reignited a national conversation about Black people’s place in America and in its history. In Staten  Island, this summer’s activism exposed residents to the borough’s  lesser-known, and often overlooked, Black History. Many people, however,  only learned about the Sandy Ground Settlement. Debbie-Ann Paige,  Staten Island Public Historian and Professional Genealogist, wants  residents to realize that Black History on the Island goes beyond Sandy  Ground.

“When I first came back to Staten Island, if you said  African-American History everyone would say, ‘Well, have you spoken to  the people at Sandy Ground?’” she recounted. “While I was working on my  thesis, I realized that there was such a deeper, broader, longer, more  in-depth history of African-Americans on Staten Island.”

In order  to excavate these hidden Black histories, Paige, along with Faith  D'Alessandro and the Staten Island Chapter of the Afro-American  Historical and Genealogical Society, created the Staten Island African American Heritage Tour application. The website and mobile application (available in the App Store and Google Play Store)  provide a virtual tour through the noteworthy times and places in  Staten Island’s Black History. The app leads you through two tours: the  Gateway to Freedom Driving tour along the former Underground Railroad  route, and a virtual tour that provides a survey of Black historical  points of interest on Staten Island.

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PFT5 jingle by Patrick Meagher, Read by Sean Ghazala, Produced by Emily Nadal