As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, here’s an ugly open secret to consider about one of its original states: More than 20,000 New Yorkers owned Black people at the height of slavery in America.

I say “open” secret because this shameful history has been documented publicly for generations.

Yet this nation we’re so caught up in celebrating this year continues to whitewash — pun absolutely intended — its appalling past to the point that any attempt to set the historical record straight is attacked by its very own government.

“It’s time for New York to embrace its history instead of running from what some feel are uncomfortable conversations,” Todd Cox, associate director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund said in a statement last week. “New York was a willing participant in the most degrading, dehumanizing and despicable economic enterprise of slavery.”

Cox’s observation accompanied a new report the LDF released last week along with the New York Civil Liberties Union on how the state can right its........

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