A City Hall Tour That Opens Up the Story of New York

The tales New York tells about itself must become more nuanced and inclusive. That was the finding of a mayoral commission in January after completing an inventory of the city's monuments and markers. And that lent extra impetus to an unusual scene on Wednesday: the first guided tour of City Hall that focused on black lives in early New York. 

The tour leader was Kamau Ware, founder of Black Gotham Experience, an initiative that "explores the hidden history of the African Diaspora’s impact on New York City." He'd been hired by Justin Garrett Moore, executive director of the Public Design Commission.

"Very rarely is it that we hear the full history of New York," Moore told WNYC. 

Listen to the story to hear about the tour, which Ware conducted three times as part of a pilot program.