NY1’s “New Yorker of the Week” Is African Burial Ground Volunteer Doris Lango-Leak

Say hello to a new local celebrity in our midst: Doris Lango-Leak, a volunteer at the African Burial Ground National Monument, who has been named NY1’s “New Yorker of the Week.” 

For about 15 years, Lango-Leak has volunteered at the monument, where the bodies of 15,000 free and enslaved Black people were found in the early 1990s. She considers the burial site a “mecca” for the city’s Black population. “This is not just a history course,” she told NY1, “but something they can relate to and the history of America.”

As a volunteer for the National Park Service, Lango-Leak shows educational films, hosts arts-and-crafts classes and answers all questions about the discovered skeletal remains that were interred 30 feet below the city’s surface. She also works at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. “For all of those who were left behind,” she continued, “for all of those who were not forgotten, we will continue to strive to make things better for everyone, and we will continue to tell our story.”

Make sure to visit the Burial Ground at 290 Broadway and check out any one of their Black History Month celebrations happening every Saturday in February. 

screenshot: NY1