
This year, as the nation observes Juneteenth, many Brooklynites are surprised to learn their city’s harsh history of slavery
FLATLANDS — Growing up in an African-American family, Dr. Steven Craig Wilder was taught that his hometown, Brooklyn, had been a bastion of famous abolitionists. Based on what he learned in school, Wilder assumed slavery was largely a Southern institution, the opposite of what was believed about Northern states, including New York.
“But all the elements of that story are false,” Wilder says. “The truth is …”
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