Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Town of Oyster Bay residents and elected officials celebrated Black History Month on Tuesday, when the town hosted a celebration of extraordinary African Americans in Oyster Bay and Nassau County.
Town Supervisor Joe Saladino welcomed other local elected leaders, educators, community leaders and residents. The event began with a performance by the Black Voices of Nassau County, who sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning.”
Saladino said that supporting and remembering Black history is integral to celebrating broader American history, describing it as part of the “mosaic” of the past. “We all want to remind everyone that black history is American history,” he said. “Democracy is something very important to us. Advocacy has one direction: forward.”
Saladino shared the story of Edward Perkins, who shared a tent with Saladino’s father during his stint in the Marines, and went on to served as U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, South Africa, the United Nations and Australia, as well as director general of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Corps. Perkins. Saladino described Perkins as a man who operated with both his heart and mind.
Deputy County Executive Anissa Moore traced the history of black people on Long Island. “We have survived the horrors of slavery, Jim Crow, racism, sexism, hatred, poverty, lynchings, world wars, to name a few,” she said, “but we’re holding on to the promise of America.”
Africans arrived in New York as early as 1626, she said, and the first slaves were brought to Long Island around 1654. Moore traced the roots of Black history through a number of Long Island communities. By 1840, the Long Island Rail Road had been built through the town of Westbury.
“Over time,” she said of the growing number of Black families, “they began to develop their own stores, and they created a whole village around the railroad of Black-owned stores.” She also highlighted David Carll, a Civil War veteran who was a leader in Oyster Bay’s Black community in the late 1800s.
“Our story is still hidden within Long Island history,” Moore said, “so when they ask you, tell them that we were here, and we’re still here, in the greatest country in the world.”
Denice Evans-Sheppard, executive director of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, followed Moore, and noted that according to the first U.S. census, Long Island’s population was 17 percent Black. During the time of slavery, she said, Oyster Bay was one of the more progressive areas in the country.
Lionel Chitty, executive director of Nassau County’s Office of Minority Affairs, paid tribute to Westbury village Trustee William Wise, who died last September. Chitty praised Wise him as a mentor, and a visionary who was instrumental in planning Westbury’s development and architecture.
After Chitty spoke, Claire Bellerjeau, author of “Remember Liss” — a work of nonfiction told from the point of view of an enslaved Black woman seeking personal liberty in a country fighting for its own — shared the story of the titular character. Liss lived in Oyster Bay at the time of the country’s founding, where she was enslaved by the Townsend family.
Bellerjeau explained that in 1778, three years after the Revolutionary War began, the Townsend home became the headquarters of a British commander and early abolitionist named Colonel John Graves Simcoe. Simcoe helped Liss escape in 1779, but she was re-enslaved in New York City by another British officer.
It is speculated that Liss may have been a part of the Culper Spy Ring, which was assembled in 1778 by Major Benjamin Tallmadge, of the Continental Army, at the request of General George Washington. One of its lead spies was a member of the family that had enslaved Liss, Robert Townsend.
The espionage network operated on Long Island and in New York City during the war. Codes and aliases were used to conceal the identities of the members. During the war, Liss had contact with Robert Townsend, who used invisible ink and spy codes to send intelligence reports to Washington.
After Bellerjeau took questions from the audience, the event ended with a poem written by Anthony Townsend, a veteran of the Vietnam War and Oyster Bay resident. He wrote, “Miss Liss I tip my hat soothe, my soul, proud to know you, never to young never to old a Townsend forever imagine it all, greeting Miss Liss as the Sun rise and fall, remember a story told.”
