This story is part of an ongoing journalistic initiative to rally the community and the country around a critical, but endangered, historical site: Sandy Ground, the nation’s oldest free Black settlement still inhabited by descendants of its pioneers.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Rev. Charles Washington has spent decades serving congregations across New Jersey and New York. But in the historic community of Sandy Ground — the oldest continuously inhabited Black settlement in the country, located in Rossville — the work he is doing now feels different.
“This work here is personal for me,” Rev. Washington said. “I didn’t really understand how deep my roots were until I became the pastor.”…