An app uncovers York, NY’s buried Black history, but its creator questions why so many former Black community hubs have been replaced by parking lots.
The Black woman behind an app dedicated to uncovering York, New York’s forgotten Black history is questioning whether the former Green Book stops were intentionally paved over to erase the town’s Black trailblazers.
Samantha Dorm launched the Paved Over Prominence project after discovering that many of York’s former Black businesses and community hubs had been replaced by parking lots. She later partnered with Andy Lynch and his company, Vision Solutions AR, to develop an app that allows users to explore York’s neighborhoods through their phone or tablet, overlaying real-time camera views with text and art that bring the area’s hidden history to life.
“I personally didn’t know this history,” Dorm told the York Daily Record.
In 1938, city budget cuts led to the park’s closure the following year. Today, the site where it once stood has been replaced by a parking lot.
“Was it just that the properties were dilapidated or was there was deliberate effort to pave over sites important to the Black community?” Dorm said. “You can’t say. You have to take it with a grain of salt. What we should do is try to highlight the lives of the families who lived here and built a community.”
Dorm was familiar with York’s Black history due to her ancestors being among York’s pioneering Black families who migrated from South Carolina in search of opportunity. However, her research uncovered a broader history, revealing a once-thriving community that has since been replaced by parking lots.
“A lot of the places where prominent Black families lived, loved and worshipped are now parking lots,” she said. “That’s why we called it Paved Over Prominence.”
Source: Black Enterprise
