08/23/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/23/2024 07:10
August 23, 2024
NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced that City Hall and other municipal buildings will be lit up yellow tonight in honor of International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.
"Today, we reflect on the inhumanity of slavery, remember those in Haiti who fought in the name of the justice to abolish it, and recommit ourselves to the shared principles of liberty, dignity, and equality for all," said Mayor Adams. "Now, more than ever, to build a better future, we must reconcile with our troubled past. Let us all work together to remember our collective history and use it as a lesson to turn a painful moment into a purposeful one."
Designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1998, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition commemorates the start of a 1791 uprising among the enslaved people of Haiti that would culminate in both the Haitian Revolution and the abolition of the slave trade. Mayor Adams acknowledges both the harrowing tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade as well as the vital role the uprising played in ending it.
In addition to City Hall, the following city buildings will be lit up yellow starting tonight at sundown:
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