On Friday, February 21^, the expertise of Associate Professor Prithi Kanakamedala of BCC’s Department of History was the star of a CBS News New York segment on Black History Month. Dr. Kanakamedala took reporter Aundrea Cline-Thomas to the corner in Tribeca that in the early 1800s was the home of abolitionist David Ruggles — and a stop on the legendary “Underground Railroad” that brought enslaved Americans to freedom.

“The Underground Railroad was very much about ordinary people coming to New York to live their lives quite publicly and to restore their own human dignity,” said the historian, adding that Ruggles “really was putting his life on the line in terms of trying to figure out both political and legal freedoms for free black people, but also trying to figure out how we can end slavery in the United States.”