Instructor Kate Gill loves sharing the history of Seneca Village with her students each cycle. A bit from Kate: "Do you know about the village reduced to rubble to make way for Central Park? Some students have been to the park, and for others, it was their first time to Central Park-- but for all, the story of Seneca Village was new-- and at the same time the story of getting pushed out-- not unfamiliar.

For many, the story of the Government coming in and saying "You need to move" lines up with their experience. The thriving diverse village with the largest number of middle-class African American homeowners in NYC who welcomed Irish and German immigrant homes owners; the only truly integrated community in NYC where people lived, intermarried, had children, baptized & educated their children in churches and school-- that village was all destroyed to make way for Central Park."