[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”1897.8px” custom_margin=”||-74px|||” custom_padding=”0px||2px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_4,1_4″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”96px” custom_margin=”|auto|9px|auto||” custom_padding=”||0px|||” border_style_all=”dashed” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_social_media_follow icon_color=”#A9A9A9″ use_icon_font_size=”on” icon_font_size=”22px” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” text_orientation=”right” width=”100%” min_height=”32px” custom_margin=”-3px||-1px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_release_template\/” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” border_color_all=”#A9A9A9″ global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]facebook[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_releases\/” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]twitter[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”linkedin” url=”https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/cws\/share?url=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_releases” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]linkedin[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][\/et_pb_social_media_follow][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_4,1_4″ _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” min_height=”1320.6px” custom_margin=”-30px|auto||auto||” custom_padding=”32px||0px|0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_text_color=”#000000″ header_2_text_align=”left” header_2_text_color=”#000000″ header_2_line_height=”1.1em” header_3_text_color=”#000000″ width=”100%” min_height=”65.7px” custom_padding=”|||0px||” border_color_all=”#000000″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
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Flushing, New York, October 25, 2022\u2014Queens College President Frank H. Wu will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the college\u2019s Science Building at 12 pm, Thursday, October 27, to dedicate \u201cRantus Rock\u201d in tribute to Wilson Rantus, a prominent African American civil rights leader, educator, and businessman who lived from 1807 to 1861. The more than a billion-year-old approximately 13-ton gneiss boulder sits close to what was the Rantus farm and family cemetery, bordered by what is now the\u00a0southwest edge of campus<\/a>\u00a0at Melbourne Avenue, 149th Street, and Gravett Road in Flushing. Wu will also recognize the contributions of the Queens College Community Advisory Board and the Rantus Rock Sub-Committee for their efforts on this project. A reception in the college\u2019s Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library will follow the ceremony.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an extraordinary moment for the college and the wider Flushing community, with whom we\u2019ve worked to highlight and preserve Rantus\u2019s legacy,\u201d says Wu. \u201cBecause of his contributions to Queens and his family\u2019s connections to this neighborhood, we are commemorating Rantus with a place on campus close to his family\u2019s property. Change is slow, but its impact is lasting. That\u2019s why we\u2019re marking this site with a more than billion-year old rock excavated in the construction of the Science Building in 1982. Perhaps in another 40 years we will be able to say, \u2018Look how far we have come since we dedicated this site to Wilson Rantus.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Born in what is now known as Jamaica, Rantus became a civil rights activist, educator, and landowner with holdings throughout the borough. He provided financial backing for the\u00a0Anglo African<\/i>, a magazine launched by pioneering African American journalist Thomas Hamilton in 1858. Rantus helped build a school for African American children and also worked to organize statewide conventions in support of an amendment to the New York State constitution that barred African American citizens who were not property owners from voting.<\/p>\n Rantus was buried in his family\u2019s cemetery in 1861. In the early 50s, in preparation for the construction of an apartment complex on the cemetery site, the remains of three individuals were moved with the consent of Rantus\u2019s descendants to Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn. One of the two gravestones found was for Wilson Rantus. In June 2014, Rantus\u2019s gravestone appeared without explanation in the backyard of a Flushing resident. The 153-year-old marble tombstone was relocated to Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn later that month where it now marks Rantus\u2019s remains.<\/p>\n The approximately 13-ton gneiss boulder that will serve as Rantus Rock is thought to be a piece of bedrock from the Hudson Highlands picked up by moving glacial ice and deposited 13,000 to 18,000 years ago on what is now the Flushing campus. It is surmised that the edge of the glacier stood along the east-west rise of the wall where the boulder rolled off and was then buried in sand from the melting ice sheet. The fragment was originally located several kilometers beneath the earth’s surface and through subsequent erosion over hundreds of millions of years was brought to within 20 feet of the earth\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”12px” background_color=”#EFEFEF” custom_margin=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding=”5px|17px|5px|17px|true|true” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n About Queens College<\/b><\/span> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_social_media_follow icon_color=”#A9A9A9″ use_icon_font_size=”on” icon_font_size=”22px” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” text_orientation=”right” width=”100%” min_height=”97px” custom_margin=”-3px||-1px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_release_template\/” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” border_color_all=”#A9A9A9″ global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]facebook[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_releases\/” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]twitter[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”linkedin” url=”https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/cws\/share?url=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_releases” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]linkedin[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][\/et_pb_social_media_follow][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_blurb title=”Maria Matteo” image_icon_background_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” image_icon_width=”48px” _builder_version=”4.16.1″ header_font=”Open Sans||||||||” body_text_color=”#000000″ body_font_size=”16px” custom_padding=”|||0px||” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]Media and College Relations Queens College To Hold October 27 Ribbon-Cutting to Dedicate Billion-Year-Old Boulder in Honor of Wilson Rantus (1807-1861), Prominent African American Civil Rights Leader, Educator, and Businessman, Whose Farm and Family Cemetery Bordered What is Now the Campus \u2014The approximately 13-ton boulder\u2014deposited on site of the campus thousands of years ago from a melting glacier near […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"page_category":[],"wf_page_folders":[],"class_list":["post-3252","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3252"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3352,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3252\/revisions\/3352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"page_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page_category?post=3252"},{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=3252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The area surrounding the boulder currently serves as space for contemplation on the campus, with benches situated nearby. A garden is planned for the area.<\/p>\n
<\/b>Queens College enjoys a national reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs. With its graduate and undergraduate degrees, honors programs, and research and internship opportunities, the college helps its students realize their potential in countless ways, assisted by an accessible, award-winning faculty. Located on a beautiful, 80-acre campus in Flushing, the college has been cited by Princeton Review as one of America\u2019s Best Value Colleges for five consecutive years, as well as being ranked a\u00a0U.S. News and World Report<\/i>\u00a0Best College and\u00a0Forbes<\/i>\u00a0Magazine Best Value College thanks to its outstanding academics, generous financial aid packages, and relatively low costs. Visit our\u00a0<\/span>homepage<\/a>\u00a0to learn more\u200b.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong>718-997-5593
\nmaria.matteo@qc.cuny.edu<\/a>
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