Greenwood Cemetery-St Louis
Site Brief:
Founded: 1874
Location: St Louis, MO
Additional name(s): Greenwood Cemetery Preservation Association
Affiliate group(s): None
History:
Greenwood Cemetery was the first Black non-sectarian, commercial burial ground in the St Louis region post-Civil War. It is 31.85 acres with over 50,000 souls interred, including Harriet Scott, freedom suit plaintiff & wife of Dred Scott. Their case went before the U.S. Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford; Charlton Hunt Tandy, Civil war veteran & activist who assisted the "Exodusters" in their pursuit of a safe & better life; Lucy Delaney, who wrote the 1890s slave narrative, "From the Darkness Cometh the Light". Greenwood Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Separate and unequal in life as well as in death. Greenwood's history tells the story of those who helped shaped the city of St Louis and received little or no benefit of the city's prosperity.
