Palmetto Cemetery

Aug 12

Written By Sarajane Smith

Site Brief:

Founded: 1920

Location: Columbia, SC

Additional name(s): N/A

Affiliate group(s):

Palmetto Cemetery Association

History:

Palmetto Cemetery is a historically African American vernacular cemetery located along Fairfield Road in Columbia, South Carolina. Although its earliest known burial dates to 1893, the cemetery developed into an important Black burial ground during the early twentieth century (1920), when burial lots were being sold under the direction of African American mortician Willis Craig Johnson. By the Jim Crow era, Palmetto had become a significant burial place for Columbia’s Black community, serving generations of families during a period when racial segregation shaped access to cemeteries and other public and private institutions. The cemetery contains thousands of marked and unmarked graves and reflects distinctive African American funerary traditions, family networks, and community stewardship. Richland County has characterized Palmetto as a historic African American vernacular cemetery and a significant record of Black burial practices in Columbia.

Palmetto Cemetery is significant to local and Black history because its burial landscape preserves an unusually concentrated record of Columbia’s African American community across more than a century. Those interred there include educators, physicians, businesspeople, veterans, religious leaders, civil rights activists, and generations of residents whose lives collectively shaped Black Columbia, including prominent figures such as Dr. Matilda A. Evans, Modjeska Monteith Simkins, James M. Hinton, Celia Dial Saxon, and Nathaniel J. Frederick. Beyond these notable individuals, Palmetto’s greatest significance lies in the broader community represented there and in the continuing efforts of descendants and community members to maintain, reclaim, document, and protect the cemetery. As such, Palmetto is both a burial ground and an enduring cultural landscape through which the history, social networks, traditions, and community life of Black Columbia can be understood.