SITE DIRECTORY
To learn more about any of the BCN sites listed below, click “Read more” to view individual site briefs. To search for a specific BCN site, use the search bar below:
Zion Hill CME Cemetery
ZION HILL CME CEMETERY
FOUNDED: Late 1870s
ADDITONAL NAMES: Zion Church Cemetery, Zion Hill Cemetery
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
This cemetery is affiliated with the Zion Hill CME Church of Cordova, Tennessee. The church and cemetery have both been serving the historically Black community of Bridgewater for over a century.
BCN Contact Information:
Reverend Gentry
zionhillcme@gmail.com
Rest Hill Cemetery
REST HILL CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1867 - 1869
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
The Rest Hill Cemetery on Trousdale Ferry Pike in Lebanon, Tennessee was included on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 for its significance in the African American community during the Reconstruction Era. Established in 1867-69, the burials reflect the original African American community in Lebanon which grew with the assistance of the Freedman's Bureau and the racial segregation of the Jim Crow period. Rest Hill served as the only African American burial ground in Lebanon from 1869-1933 when African American were banned from burial in the city cemetery. To this day, Rest Hill still serves the community.
Our goal is to put head stones on all the unmarked graves.
BCN Contact Information:
Harry Watkins
wccl5353@gmail.com
Union Ridge Cemetery
UNION RIDGE CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1830s
ADDITONAL NAMES: Davidson Cemetery
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
The Union Ridge Heritage Association was created by the descendants of those buried in Union Ridge Cemetery and/or who attended Hord AME Chapel. The Union Ridge Heritage Association goal is to restore and maintain the cemetery and Hord AME Chapel. They wish to respectfully honor the family members buried at Union Ridge and pass on the knowledge of Union Ridge.
BCN Contact Information:
Charles Thompson
ctjazzy@gmail.com
Cedar Lawn Cemetery
CEDAR LAWN CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1940
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
This cemetery was given to the community by ALCOA Inc, an aluminum company. Most African American men, in Alcoa, worked at the Alcoa Aluminum Company because World War 1 brought about a spike in the demand for aluminum. The men were brought in to work in the smelting operations. The company quickly expanded its North Maryville operations. In 1919, a rolling mill (now West Plant) was completed, and the company purchased the Knoxville Power Company for its Little Tennessee Valley holdings.
Dr. Ben Washington, who was a community leader and Doctor, lays at this cemetery. This cemetery is the final resting place to veterans from World War I and beyond.
BCN Contact Information:
United Citizen Community Organization
Bonesjrw@gmail.com
Mt Carmel
MT CARMEL CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1847
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
Mt Carmel Cemetery is located at the northwest corner of Elvis Presley Blvd. and Elliston Rd. Over the years, the cemetery has been neglected, records lost due to fire, then abandoned. Negligence continues at present.
History of some influential people at Mt Carmel
-Tom Lee, African American, final resting place is at Mt Carmel. He became a Memphis hero on May 8, 1925, when he saved the lives of 32 white people from a capsized riverboat on the Mississippi River even though he could not swim. Tom Lee Park was established in 1954 and a monument erected on thirty acres of the riverfront in downtown Memphis.
-Sam Qualls, another prominent African American, final resting place is at Mt Carmel. He founded a funeral home in 1932. S.W. Qualls was one of the oldest mortuaries in the city.
-Lelia Mason, the wife of Mason Temple and Church of God in Christ (denomination) founder Charles Harrison Mason, final resting place is at Mt Carmel. Mason Temple is where Dr. Martin Luther King proclaimed in his last speech titled “Mountain Top”, on 4/3/1968, proclaimed “something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our World!”
BCN Contact Information:
Samuel Oldham
MtCarmelAlly@gmail.com
Promise Land Cemetery
PROMISE LAND CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1880
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
The Promise Land Community was established and settled by former slaves from the Cumberland Furnace during the Reconstruction Period (1870-1875) in Charlotte, Tennessee.
Deed records and Census reports reveal that some of the early settlers were Nathan Bowen, Joe Washington Vanleer, William Gilbert, John Grimes, Jeff Edmondson, Charles Redden, George Primm, and U.S. Colored Troop Veterans brothers, John and Arch Nesbitt, Clark Garrett, Landin Williams, and Ed Vanleer. These early settlers went on to become landowners with their descendants continuing to own the land.
The Promise Land Cemetery was established in 1880. John Nesbitt purchased property with backed pension funds. U.S. Colored Troop Veterans are buried at this site like John Nesbitt and Arch Nesbitt.
Today, only the St. John Promise Land Church and the old Promise Land School Building remain. In 2007 the Promise Land School Building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In July 2010 a Civil War Trails Marker was placed on the site of the historic school building in recognition of the Civil War records of John and Arch Nesbitt and their contributions to the community.
BCN Contact Information:
Promise Land Heritage Association
TuesRd2@gmail.com
www.promiselandtn.com
Zion Christian Cemetery
ZION CHRISTIAN CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1876
ADDITONAL NAMES: None
AFFILIATION(S):
HISTORY:
Founded in 1876 by a group of freed slaves calling themselves the Sons of Zion, this cemetery on South Parkway in Memphis was the African American community's major cemetery for approximately 40 years. Zion Cemetery is the oldest African American cemetery in Memphis. The public library has compiled a listing of all persons buried in the cemetery from 1896 onwards. There are likely over 30,000 people buried there on 15 acres. The deceased include, among other notables, Georgia Patton Washington, the first black female physician in Tennessee; Calvin McDowell, William Stewart and Thomas Moss, the friends of Ida B. Wells whose 1892 triple lynching inspired her national anti-lynching campaign; Thomas Cassels, a lawyer who served in the Tennessee General Assembly; Benjamin Hooks' grandfather, Charles; and musician W. C. Handy's infant daughter.
The cemetery was largely abandoned after the 1970s until control of the site was taken over by the CME church and, eventually, the volunteer organization known as the Zion Community Project. Efforts to clean and maintain the cemetery have now evolved into plans for devising educational programming, additional historical designations, preservation, and perhaps some restoration. The site was added to the Register of Historic Places in 1990.
BCN Contact Information:
Zion Community Project
zioncommunityproject@gmail.com