Forced Relocation Memorial Site
Owner City of New York Established 2020
Purpose Memorial and Museum
Status Memorial open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Museum open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Easily overlooked in comparison to the sleek architecture of the rest of Roosevelt, the Relocation Memorial Site is understated and somber in aesthetic and mood. Built to remember and honor the unjust relocation of SLC-E individuals in 2011, an inciting event that sparked the Second American Civil War, the center also serves as an educational resource with a museum and library. Any donations or proceeds help to fund events dedicated to the same mission and also to provide scholarships and financial aid to the survivors of the relocation. It stands where Summer Meadows, first a Ferry safe haven and later a relocation site, once stood.

The building walls itself are made of long, horizontal slabs of concrete, stone, metal and other materials taken from relocation sites across the United States, pieced together in differing lengths, with each slab representing the SLC-E individuals who were relocated from the New York City area into such centers as Eltingville Blocks and Summer Meadows. Some slabs jut out farther than others — some bear names and others do not, representing those who died while incarcerated or after. Often, on these jutting slabs rests a flower, left by either loved ones or strangers.

Inside, the museum is like many others of its type. Exhibits include photographs, audiovisual programs, and artifacts taken from many of the relocation sites. Walls throughout the museum include the names of each relocation site in the United States along with all of its known inhabitants in devastatingly small print. A bookstore sells commemorative items along with books about the relocation or by any of its survivors.

At the far southern end of the memorial site is a tall free-standing sculpture of wings representing the freedom of American SLC-Expressives from imprisonment at the conclusion of the war.

Forced Relocation Memorial Site

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