Old Wantagh cemetery landmarked

(A version of this story appeared in Newsday on Nov. 25, 2010)

The Hempstead Town board has conferred landmark status on a centuries-old African-American and Native American burial ground in Wantagh.

The decision protects the 0.8-acre site on Harold Avenue from future development.

The cemetery traces its roots to free African-American Jeffrey Jackson who, in 1808, took ownership of 20 acres in the area that became his homestead. Generations of Jacksons lived there and descendants still inhabit the region.