Jennie Bobb and her daughter

Transcript:

Jacqueline Bishop: Right again, right very hard to find images of Indigenous and enslaved peoples, and in the building of New York and their contributions in doing so. But here, I love this image because of the nurturing aspect to it. Right?

And we do see enslaved men in it as well, with the figure who's carrying this seemingly very heavy thing on his head. But this image, when I look at it, reminds me of the dignity of people who have had so much taken away from them. And it also reminds me of whose labor it is that built the institutions on which so much that New York relies on, where that labor came from, where that knowledge came from. And we owe these people so much right. New York University rests on Indigenous land and is built on both Indigenous and enslaved labor. And so it's all the more wonderful that New York University and its library would take a moment to acknowledge this debt that we all collectively owe as New Yorkers today to these people.

Shawnta Smith-Cruz: Thank you, Jacqueline.