West Nyack, NY (April 29, 2013) – This Saturday morning Legislator Ed Day, along with volunteers from his campaign for Rockland County Executive, teamed up with the Nam Knights veterans motorcycle club to clean up Mount Moor African-American Cemetery at the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack as part of the Great American Cleanup. The group collected wreaths laid over the holidays by the Nam Knights, along with assorted litter and trash that had spread into the cemetery, located on the hill directly in front of the mall's parking garage, and put fresh American flags at each of the graves.
"It was great to team up with a group of great Americans to help clean up the final resting place of many heroes from past wars," said Day. "Due to its location, folks tend to just drive by this cemetery without realizing the historic importance of both the site and those buried there. I hope that by bringing some attention to it and helping to beautify the site that might change."
The Mount Moor cemetery was dedicated as a “Burying ground for Colored people” in July 1849, according to the historical site plaque at the entrance. It has approximately 90 known graves marked with everything from wooden crosses to fieldstones to professionally carved headstones, and is the final resting place of veterans from the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World Wars l and ll and the Korean War. The cemetery was surrounded by the construction of the mall upon its completion in 1998.
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"Respect for our veterans, for our historic sites, and for our environment are important values to imbue in our younger generation. It is also important to remember that there was a time in our nation's history where even in death people were treated as second class citizens, and that it is our responsibility to treat them with the level of respect they always deserved," Day concluded.
