Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

Senate Passes Bill to Create African American Burial Grounds Network

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation that would better protect historic African American cemeteries. The measure also paves the way for the creation of an African American Burial Grounds Network. “We know that for too long in too many parts of our country, Black families were blocked from burying their loved ones in white cemeteries,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) remarked. “These men and women were freed slaves, civil rights champions, veterans, mothers, fathers, workers in communities. We need to act now before these sites are lost to the ravages of time or development,” Brown concluded. Initially introduced in the U.S.