Oak Lawn Cemetery

VA

Site Brief:

Founded: 1885

Location: Suffolk, VA

Additional name(s): Oaklawn Cemetery

Affiliate group(s):

  • Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

 

History:

In 1885, seven African American trustees acquired land and established Oak Lawn Cemetery for burials of African American citizens within the corporate limits of the Town of Suffolk, Virginia. Community leaders interred here include John W. Richardson, president of the Phoenix Bank of Nansemond; Wiley H. Crocker, founder of the Tidewater Fair Association and Nansemond Development Corporation; William Washington Gaines, Baptist minister and founder of the Nansemond Collegiate Institute; Fletcher Mae Howell, Baptist missionary; Dr. William T. Fuller, physician and banker; and William H. Walker, Tuskegee Airman. Also buried in Oak Lawn are late 19th-century local politicians, United States Colored Troops, and veterans of the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam. In 2019, a historical highway marker was erected at the site.



BCN Contact Information:

Nadia K. Orton

nadia.orton@sacredgroundsproject.org

aahgs.org

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