How This New App Can Teach You About Forgotten Histories

Plea for the Fifth

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.

Read more at www.pleaforthefifth.com

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