PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY:EXPERTS TO DISPUTE CITY REPORT DENYING EXISTENCE OF UNDERGROUND RAILROAD SITE

Elected Officials, Historians, Residents Seek to Preserve Duffield Houses During Juneteenth Commemoration – Celebrating the End of Slavery

BROOKLYN, NY – On Juneteenth – a national celebration that commemorates the end of slavery – elected officials, historic preservationists, and local residents will rally at Duffield Houses to challenge the conclusions of the City's Economic Development Corporation report, which denies the existence of a historic Underground Railroad site at this location. Many of the nationally-renown expert witnesses who worked on this report will directly repudiate the City's conclusions – which will now allow a private developer to demolish the Duffield Houses and build a parking lot at the site.

On January 7, 2004, Duffield Street residents found notices taped to front doors informing them that their historic houses would be taken by eminent domain and demolished to make way for a new parking lot. A growing number of historians, archaeologist, and Underground Railroad experts are outraged at the concocted conclusion of the City's report by a consultant firm unqualified to make such an analysis. Many consider this Underground Railroad site to be hallowed ground and a
vital cultural treasure that should be preserved. The Underground Railroad was the network of people and places in which fugitive slaves sought refuge when escaping from the plantation system in the South.

WHEN:
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 from 1:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

WHERE:
227 Duffield Street (between Fulton & Willoughby)
Brooklyn, NY 11201

WHO:
Elected Officials, historic preservationists, and local residents.
JIM DRISCOLL and RICHARD HOURAHAN, expert witnesses.
LEWIS GREENSTEIN and JOY CHATEL, Duffield Block Association.
BOB FURMAN, Chairman, and RAUL ROTHBLATT, Board Member, Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance.
CHRISTABEL GOUGH, Secretary, Society for the Architecture of the City.
ILANA BURGER, Community Organizers, FUREE: Families United for Racial
& Economic Equality.

Contact:
John Choe | Chief of Staff
Office of Council Member John C. Liu
The Council of the City of New York
646-296-1455