Landon Road Cemetery

Dec 16

Site Brief:

Founded: 1904

Location: Brandon, MS

Additional name(s): Landon Colored Cemetery

Affiliate group(s): N/A

History:

Landon Road Cemetery is located on the Bernard Bayou in the Side Camp Community. Records indicate the burial ground was established in the late 1800s with the last confirmed burial being 1967. The cemetery is the final resting place of many African Americans who lived in the unincorporated northwest area of Harrison County.

Many of those interred at Landon Road Cemetery laid the foundation of what the Mississippi Gulf Coast is today. They worked in the lumber, shipping, and railroad industries. The cemetery itself is situated on property which was once owned by the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad and used as a turpentine still where multiple employees labored through extremely harsh working conditions and often died while doing so. Many of these workers and their families purchased plots and were buried at Landon Road Cemetery.

Today, the cemetery is hidden from public view. It lies deep within a wooded area on private property. The land owner is not willing to allow family members to visit or to clear a path to the cemetery for restoration purposes. As a result, the cemetery is in danger of being lost forever. Research shows there are approximately 100 known graves in the cemetery with at least 5 veteran headstones present.