SAN MARCOS BLANCO CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1893

ADDITONAL NAMES: SMBC, San Marcos Community Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• ———

• ————-

HISTORY:

Extensive research was conducted by the late Ms. Ollie Giles. The San Marcos-Blanco Cemetery was established in 1893 by five African American men. Wyatt Newman, James Landon, Henry Richardson, Lucky McQueen, and Miles Bowen purchased the 10.62 acres for $200 cash.

Officially, the cemetery became the San Marcos-Blanco Association Cemetery in 1901. In 1981, several local residents reorganized a cemetery association and had the name changed to San Marcos Community Cemetery. Some years later it was changed back to San Marcos-Blanco.

Today there are more than 400 graves with headstones and inscriptions. Many others do not have headstones, and Giles says there are probably still more that are unmarked and undiscovered. The cemetery is located on Post Road north of San Marcos. Initiatives will be focused on the maintenance and preservation of the site. It is presently being encroached upon by local expansion efforts. Vandalism and unauthorized entries onto the grounds contribute to our concerns.

BCN Contact Information:

Johnnie Bratton, Jr

coachjbratton@gmail.com

BRAINERD CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1734

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Brainerd Cemetery is one of two cemeteries operated by the First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury. According to our records, the earliest burial occurred in the "Old Yard" in 1738. From information gleaned from church maps, records and longtime members, we know that behind the "Old Yard" was an area that had been designated both as the "Colored Section" and the "Potters' Field." The earliest burial in the segregated section was that of Edward Ditmars in 1846 (born 1784), and the most recent burial was 2010. We also know that there were at least two formerly enslaved women buried in the cemetery-- Gracie Allen & "Aunt Jennie." Our church's records note that Gracie Allen (1790 - 1875) "Freed Slave of Bayles Family." While her name is in our records, we have not been able to find her headstone. It is possible that she was originally given a simple wooden marker that has succumbed to elements or that a stone one was broken.

BCN Contact Information:

Sarah Mayer, lead researcher

cranbury252@cranburypres.org

LOVING CARE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Unknown

ADDITONAL NAMES: Mount Zion Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

In the 1950’s, our parents purchased a 5-acre tract of farmland that contained a small cemetery. Eventually, our parents decided to reopen the cemetery, renaming it Loving Care Cemetery in the late 1960’s, to allow burials, as it had been one of two cemeteries (Mayberry is the other) that families living in the Seffner, Thonotosassa communities had utilized as a final resting place for their loved ones.

The oldest residents recall seeing a headstone but over time the many of the headstones and two obelisks has disappeared. The oldest headstone we have currently is for Mr. Sampson Forrester, born March 1, 1786, and passed away on November 29, 1888. With the passage of time, many of the headstones have deteriorated and some of the grave spaces cannot be identified. There are approximately 60+ people buried in Loving Care, and the owners of the cemetery frequently get requests from family members of the deceased to be buried with their loved ones.

BCN Contact Information:

Ida Booth

Idabooth@gmail.com

AFRICAN-AMERICAN ANCESTRAL BURIAL GROUND AT VALE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1863

ADDITONAL NAMES: Vale Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The African-American Ancestral Burial Ground at Vale Cemetery is the final resting place of abolitionists, Underground Railroad activists, advocates for African-American freedom, former slaves, war heroes, and people who were the fiber of Schenectady’s African-American community that began in the late 17th century. Vale Cemetery was established in 1857. Beginning in 1863, the African-American burial ground—formerly called the Colored Plot—was moved from Veeder Avenue to the present location. Vale Cemetery is listed as a National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site.

Notable members of the African-American community include: Moses Viney (1817-1909), a fugitive slave from Easton, Maryland who traveled the Underground Railroad to New York in 1840. While living in Schenectady, Viney was employed by Eliphalet Nott, President of Union College, and later he established a livery business and became a respected businessman. R.P.G. Wright (1772-1847) was an advocate for the education of African-Americans and president of anti-slavery conventions in the 1840s. Corporal Jared Jackson (1840-1888) served with Company N of the 20th Regiment of Colored Troops in the Union Army during the Civil War. The Vale community hosts an annual Juneteenth celebration at the African-American Burial Ground to honor the day the last slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, June 19th, 1865. The program includes a reenactment of Moses Viney’s escape from slavery.

BCN Contact Information:

Vale Cemetery Preservation, Inc.

vale@valecemetery.org

https://valecemetery.org/african-american

AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND AT HISTORIC ST. AGNES CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1867

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The African Burial Ground at Historic St. Agnes Cemetery is the final resting place of 14 former enslaved people—6 women, 1 man, 2 children, and 5 infants. St. Agnes Cemetery was established in 1867 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. In 2005, 13 human remains were disturbed in an undocumented burial ground during a construction project in Colonie, New York. The remains were placed in the care of the New York State Museum, along with one other individual whose remains were found during a construction project in 1998. Historical and bioarchaeological studies identified the unmarked burial ground as a place once used by individuals enslaved by the prominent colonial Schuyler family, and the analysis determined that most of the individuals were of African ancestry, with one woman of mixed Native American and African ancestry. The burials date to the 1700s to the early 1800s. The area of the former Schuyler estate is known today as Schuyler Flatts and is located along the Hudson River about 5 miles north of Albany, New York. The Schuyler Flatts Burial Ground Project Committee worked with archaeologists, artists, woodworkers, and historians, creating individually decorated burial containers and a reburial ceremony to honor these individuals. In 2015, St. Agnes Cemetery donated this burial site and the Town of Colonie funded the tombstone and marker. The day before the ceremony, the burial containers with the remains laid in state at the Schuyler Mansion, a state historic site once inhabited by relatives of the estate operators. On June 18, 2016, an interdenominational memorial ceremony honored the individuals as their remains were laid to rest with dignity and respect. On June 17, 2017, a bronze plaque was dedicated to mark the Historic African Burial Ground site at Historic St. Agnes Cemetery. The original African Burial Ground site at nearby Schuyler Flatts has a historical marker describing the discovering of the remains and the reburial project.

BCN Contact Information:

Historic St. Agnes Cemetery

Info@ADCemeteries.org
https://www.albany.org/listing/historic-st-agnes-cemetery/1806/

BUENA VISTA PLANTATION CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Early 1820s

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

In 2019, archaeologists located an unmarked cemetery on the west bank of the Mississippi River, in upper St. James Parish, Louisiana, near the small Black community of Welcome. This location was formerly part of an antebellum sugar plantation known as Buena Vista, or Winchester, Plantation. The archaeologists did not excavate any of the burials in the cemetery to try to determine what, or how many, people were buried there. The present research was conducted in an effort to answer those questions, without necessitating additional excavation. In-depth historical, cartographic, and genealogical information was used to determine, with a large degree of confidence, that the individuals buried in this unmarked cemetery were likely slaves, freedmen, and their descendants, who lived, labored, and died on the plantation from the early 1820s to well into the twentieth century. Many of the descendant families, including the Butlers, Ceasars, Fishers, Geasons, Harrises, Hogans, Lallas, and Martins, continue to reside in, or maintain ties to, this portion of St. James Parish.

BCN Contact Information:

Don Hunter

dghunterjr@gmail.com

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

OAK GROVE COLORED CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1921

ADDITONAL NAMES: William P. Johnston Memorial Cemetery, Graham Colored Cemetery, Johnston Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Oak Grove Colored Cemetery is located on the US 380 Bypass and Texas 16 in Graham, Texas. The land for the cemetery was donated by Addie Graham on May 7, 1921. It was deed by Addie Graham for the specific purpose of burying colored people. It was known to be the colored section of Oak Grove Cemetery ( a public cemetery owned by the city of Graham) within the city of Graham, Texas. The first known burial was in 1929. The most recent and the last burial was 1971. The name of the cemetery was unofficially changed to separate it from the predominately white cemetery.

In July 2023, Rev. Vanessa A. Sims, began looking for her sister's grave. During her search for her sister, she found the cemetery to be overgrown, city and county officials denied ownership of cemetery land, no survey existed, a drainage easement had been placed on cemetery grounds, cemetery land had been taken to install 3 lanes of the US 380 bypass, a fence had been installed to shorten the cemetery, and sections of the cemetery had been sold to 2 private individuals. The African Americans buried in this sacred space had been devalued and neglected by city and county officials. The Texas Historic Commission has approved a Historic Marker/Medallion for the cemetery.

To protect and preserve the cemetery, community member, Rev. Vanessa A. Sims, applied for and was able to obtain a Texas Historic Cemetery designation from the Texas Historic Commission in May 2024.

Dr. Walter and the Texas Tech Archeology team will continue the archaeological investigation of the cemetery on October 12, 2024. In her July 2024 archaeology investigation report entitled "A Place Among the Saints" she writes "Extensive mapping efforts also indicates possible disturbances and encroachments that have negatively impacted the cemetery. Based on multiple oral accounts and a review of historic maps including the right of way map (discussed in an early section of this report), it is highly likely that the construction of Highway 380 and the associated drainage infringed upon the OGC-WPJ Cemetery. Most distressing about this realization, is the real possibility that burials are under the actual roadway."

BCN Contact Information:

Rev. Vanessa Sims

vanessaannsims@gmail.com

PLEASANT POINT CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Early 1800s

ADDITONAL NAMES: Woodlawn Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Pleasant Point Cemetery (also known as Woodlawn Cemetery) is located approximately 50 miles southwest of Jacksonville Florida in Green Cove Springs, Florida. It rests just off of County Rd 209 about a half a mile north of Magnolia Cemetery. Magnolia is recognized as an Historic Civil War Cemetery, it sits on the west side of the road across from the Saint Johns River. Pleasant Point’s coordinates are 30.16592 N, 81.699639 W. It is currently severely overgrown and only a few grave monuments are still visible above ground. Find a Grave lists 15 confirmed individuals buried at Pleasant Point. Other documentation suggests that there are most likely 50 or more graves sites at this cemetery. It is referred to as a “Negro Cemetery” in historical documents and is listed as such in the manuscript, “They Are Here” Cemeteries of Clay County, Florida” by Elizabeth R. Spencer. Based on current information Pleasant Point appears to have been used from the early 1800s up until the 1930s.

BCN Contact Information:

Steve Griffith

ussgriffy@gmail.com

WASHINGTON PARK CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1920

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Established in 1920. Abandoned in 1991. 42 acres remain (from original 75 acres). Over 45,000 interments remain (after the "removal" of over 12,000 burials in the 90s for the airport expansion).

Washington Park Cemetery is an historic African American cemetery located in St. Louis, Missouri, just adjacent to Lambert International Airport. Nearly 30 acres of the approximately 42-acre ancestral repository are in a wretched state of neglect and continued desecration. It serves as a generational source of community trauma, reminding descendants of both past and current injustice. The cemetery, which is highly visible from cars on Highway 70 and airplanes landing at Lambert Airport, is the final resting place for over 45,000 people, and for many years was one of few cemeteries where the black community could bury their deceased. Tens of thousands of travelers pass or land on this site daily, unaware of the tragic history and current plight of this sacred ground. We receive calls from families all over the United States looking for their relatives, and we believe everyone has a connection to someone at Washington Park, once a place of prestige and honor. Revered ministers, Urban League and other prominent fraternal order founders, Homer Phillips physicians, Harris-Stowe professors, Sumner teachers, attorneys, activists, funeral directors, dentists, and a Supreme Court attorney were all interred here. Washington Park Cemetery is also the final resting place for many U.S. servicemen who chose to be buried by family members and near the homes of their survivors as opposed to the rather far away Jefferson Barracks Cemetery. Veterans buried at the cemetery have served in the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. With military stones found destroyed throughout the cemetery - that once represented their devoted service in five U.S. wars - survivors are lamenting their veterans’ decisions to be buried at the deteriorating Washington Park Cemetery which has no perpetual care funds.

BCN Contact Information:

Aja Corrigan

StLouisPreservationCrew@gmail.com

AFRICAN CEMETERY NO. 2

FOUNDED: 1870

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

This is the earliest recorded cemetery in Lexington to be organized, owned, and managed by African Americans. The 8-acre property was purchased in 1869 by Union Benevolent Society No. 2 (from which the cemetery gets its name) and the cemetery was chartered in 1870; burials continued until 1976. The people here were important leaders in Lexington. The cemetery uniquely honors individuals significant in the history of Thoroughbred Racing. Oliver Lewis, the first winner of the Kentucky Derby is buried here and it was the original burial site for the 3-time KY Derby-winning jockey Isaac Murphy. There over 150 members of the USCT including three individuals who were members of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Regiments.

Like many private cemeteries African Cemetery No. 2 was not endowed and with the death of its founding members the cemetery became urban wasteland - it was declared abandoned on April 17, 1973. City government claimed ownership and surveyed graves in the cemetery in 1973 in anticipation of planned development; the revelation of over 5000 burial sites precluded that use. In March 1979, the Rev. H. Greene organized a nonprofit group as African Cemetery No. 2 Inc. to reclaim the landscape. The cemetery was cleaned and restored in 1980 and African Cemetery No. 2 Inc. was deeded the property in May 1981. The nonprofit was reorganized in 1995 and restoration, historic preservation, and cultural activities have continued since. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. It is the home of Lexington’s longest running Juneteenth Celebration (since 2005).

BCN Contact Information:

Mark Coyne

mscoyn00@gmail.com

ST. MARY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1855

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

St. Mary Cemetery (established circa 1855), located in what was once a Texas Freedom Community bearing the same name in South Ellis County, Texas, is the burial place of those enslaved by General Edward H. Tarrant and their descendants. In addition to Tarrant graves, burials include the surnames: Graves, Hardeman, Hawkins, Herron, Hines, Myers, Payne, Rankin, Richardson, Sims, Standifer, Sweatt and Watson, formerly enslaved individuals and their descendants from nearby smaller plantations and farms whose descriptions can be found on both the Texas Slave Schedules of 1850 and 1860, and the United States Census in Ellis County, Texas, 1870 through 1940.

Willoughby Rankin can be traced to Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 Texas Colonists. He entered Texas from the state of Alabama as the property of Frederick Harrison Rankin. For 120 years, St. Mary Cemetery was the usual burial place for African Americans who lived in nearby communities in South Ellis County including, Italy, Avalon, and Forreston, Texas. The last burial (cremated) was interred in 2000.

BCN Contact Information:

Elmerine Allen Bell

elmerinebell@yahoo.com

MOSES CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1880s

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Moses Cemetery on River Road in Bethesda, Maryland, is located on poor land that was hilly, swampy and non-arable. Before the Civil War the land was bounded on all sides by slave owners. Although no documentation remains, there is a high probability that enslaved people from these were buried on this poor land as that was common across the slave states. After the Civil War, the land was sold to a number of free Blacks who established a thriving town there. A number of burials were documented there during the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, including a Civil War veteran who fought with the 30th Colored Infantry Regiment.

In 1910, an African American community across the DC border, which faced displacement to make way for suburban development, sought to move its Cemetery to the River Road location where it bought a one-acre plot of land in the middle of the community. Congressional approval was required to move the bodies which finally happened in 1920. In the 1950s, the River Road community came under similar pressure from developers and by the mid 1960s, the community had been driven off the land. The 1910 cemetery was buried under a parking lot while scattered other tombstones could still be spotted. The cemetery is now the center of protest and legal action to restore the cemetery.

BCN Contact Information:

Marsha Coleman Adebayo

nofearcoalition@aol.com

bethesdaafricancemeterycoalition.net

OLD ASBURY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1811

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Nearly abandoned, this cemetery is on the site of the Asbury (Methodist) Chapel, which was discontinued in the 1850s and no longer stands. In early years the congregation was both white and Black. Heading south on Route 13, the sign is on the right on a slight rise above the highway a short distance north of the Boyds Corner intersection. There are no known records of the Asbury Chapel congregation. About 1/4 of the cemetery is cleared. It extends downhill toward a small creek and has no obvious entrance road. The upper section is the original cemetery. 

Around 1928, people associated with Zoar Methodist Church in Odessa formed a board of trustees, bought an additional acre extending down the hill and created Asbury Cemetery Corporation several years later. This became a Black cemetery for the community centered around Zoar and is identified on State Highway maps as "Colored Cemetery." The ownership of the parcel is not clear since the Asbury Cemetery Corporation has disappeared from state corporate records and IRS nonprofit listings.

The cemetery has been virtually unused since 2000. The Friends of Zoar, a nonprofit restoring the ex-church as a culture and history center, has an active interest in the cemetery's future. Zoar ME was donated to the nonprofit Friends of Zoar, Inc., in 2022 when the Conference declared it surplus. Renovation work as a history-cultural-community center has begun.

BCN Contact Information:

Friends of Zoar

friendsofzoar@gmail.com

LITTLE DAVY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1880

ADDITONAL NAMES: Trinity Cemetery #2

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Little Davy Cemetery is located in the area previously known as Little Davy. This area had a thriving black community. In 1880, the Freedman's Bureau built a school across the street from the cemetery. The first burial, that we know of, was in 1889 and the last burial was in 2012.

BCN Contact Information:

Kendra Lyons

klyons@randolphlibrary.org

https://randolphlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=710731

ROSE HILL CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1887

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Rose Hill Cemetery is tucked away in an industrial area today. In 1887, the area was rural and on the outskirts of Manassas. Created at a time when local ordinance segregated burying grounds by race, this was one of the cemeteries in Prince William County that exclusively served the Black community.

The Rose Hill Cemetery Association, run by members of the African American community, was the early steward of this cemetery. Like other African American cemeteries of the time, Rose Hill received no public support from the White community or local government. Care and maintenance, including the opening and closing of graves for funerals, were provided by members of the Black community.

The first burials likely included men and women who were born enslaved. In 1978, after nearly a century of operating privately, the Cemetery Trustees approached the City of Manassas about taking over Rose Hill. After two years of negotiations, an agreement was reached in 1980, and the City accepted ownership. Today, Rose Hill is closed to new burials, but the cemetery remains an important connection to the people who helped make Manassas what it is today.

BCN Contact Information:

Mary Helen Dellinger

mdellinger@manassasva.gov

https://www.manassasva.gov

SOUTH ASHEVILLE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Early 1800s

ADDITONAL NAMES: Bracket Town, McDowell Burial Ground, and South Asheville Colored Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The cemetery had become associated with the area of South Asheville, in general, by the late nineteenth century, and by the early twentieth century the cemetery was closely associated with two churches: the AME Zion Methodist Church and the Saint John A Baptist Church. In 1912, St. John A Baptist Church was built on land adjacent to the cemetery and a schoolhouse for Black children, and many--though not all--people interred in the cemetery attended either St. John A Baptist or AME Zion Methodist. Over time, the use of the cemetery grew to larger circles of people, and by the early-to-mid-twentieth century Black people from across Asheville--many of whom had moved to the area from elsewhere--were interred in the cemetery. Burials peaked in 1927. The last burial took place in 1943. Approximately two acres in size, the cemetery is the final resting place for at least two thousand (and perhaps as many as three thousand) people, though there are fewer than one hundred headstones with names, birthdates, and death dates. There are no written cemetery records of burials. Now the cemetery is maintained through the South Asheville Cemetery Association, a 501(c)3 organization, and it is open to the public.

The South Asheville Cemetery began as a slave burial ground, and its first known caretaker was an enslaved person named George Avery (1844-1938). Mr. Avery was owned by William Wallace McDowell (1823-1893), who lived in the Smith-McDowell House, and Mr. McDowell entrusted Mr. Avery as the manager of this cemetery, located on the family's property. Recognizing that the Confederacy was going to lose the Civil War, Mr. Avery decided to join the Union Army, and after the war Mr. Avery earned a pension as a result of his service in Company D, 40th United States Colored Troops. Upon his return to Buncombe County, Mr. Avery continued to oversee burials at the cemetery until his death in 1938, though he left no written burial records about the cemetery or its occupants. Mr. Avery's monument is one of only ninety-three headstones that have names or dates identifying the people buried at this site, but the South Asheville Cemetery is a two-acre burial ground that serves as the final resting place for approximately two thousand African Americans.

During the 20th century, the neighborhood surrounding the cemetery would come to be called South Asheville. This area was absorbed into Kenilworth and then, subsequently, into the City of Asheville. African American residents of South Asheville mostly attended two churches, St. John “A” Baptist and St. Mark A.M.E. Church. Over this same time period, the South Asheville Cemetery was one of only a few cemeteries for African Americans in the region, and it is notably the oldest public African American cemetery in western North Carolina.

Part of the South Asheville Cemetery was allotted for church congregants, but any African American community member could be buried in the cemetery for a nominal fee. Many of these people were buried in wicker baskets or pine coffins, their graves marked only by field stones or handmade crosses. Due to the settling of the ground and the array of unusual grave markers, the cemetery must be cleared by hand. The South Asheville Cemetery was closed after the City of Asheville annexed South Asheville and Kenilworth, and the last person interred there was Robert C. Watkins, buried in 1943.

The South Asheville Cemetery fell into disrepair during the mid-twentieth century, but in the 1980s members of the St. John "A" Baptist Church community--most notably George Gibson and George Taylor--began restoration efforts on the property. It was brought back to the public’s attention over this time period when a series of oral history recordings, now housed at the UNC-Asheville Special Collections Library, documented people’s recollections of the cemetery. Over the last thirty years, thousands of volunteers have worked with members of the South Asheville Cemetery Association to improve and maintain this sacred and historical site in an effort to promote greater public awareness of African American history in Buncombe County and to honor the people buried there.

BCN Contact Information:

South Asheville Cemetery Association

epearson@unca.edu

I.A BANKS MEMORIAL PARK

FOUNDED: 1960

ADDITONAL NAMES: Osborne Municipal Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Founded in 1885 by Samuel and Fannie James, a racially mixed couple, believed to be former slaves, staked out a homestead in what is now Lake Worth Beach. They opened the first Post Office and became the financial and social hub of their mostly white community. Americans and Bahamians settled in an unincorporated area between Lake Worth and Lantana, Florida around 1914. In 1926, the Town of Lake Worth annexed the area as the “Osborne Colored Addition”, the only section where Black people were permitted to reside because of Jim Crow segregation laws. Lake Worth’s first cemetery, Pine Crest (est. 1923), only allowed the internment of white residents. Burials of Black people had to take place in Boynton Beach, to the south or West Palm Beach to the north. In 1960, Lake Worth established the 1.5-acre Osborne Municipal Cemetery for “colored” residents. In 1983, residents successfully petitioned the city to rename Osborne Municipal Cemetery the “I. A. Banks Memorial Park” in honor of Reverend I. A. Banks (1890 – 1975), founder and 35yr., pastor of New Hope Baptist Church, located diagonally across the street.

When the original caretaker of I.A. Banks Cemetery, David U. Millines, Sr. (b1932- ) took care of the grounds, there were never signs posted or a need to discuss upkeep of the cemetery. There seemed to be an unwritten rule that the cemetery was off limits for disrespect in any form.

Since then, residents have become distraught over growing crime and vagrancy where graves have been desecrated. The Osborne community appealed to the city commission time and again for approval of funding to surround the site with a fence. Local advocacy organized a peaceful protest in September 2023, where residents from across the city gathered to create a 'human chain' holding hands around the cemetery, chanting "rest in peace". Through the efforts of residents and Lake Worth Beach District 1 Commissioner Sarah Malega, the budget was finally approved in May 2024.

The cemetery contains 1.5 acres with an area reserved for veterans. To date, there have been 262 burials.

BCN Contact Information:

Delores Brown

Browndfla@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/PioneersOfJewell

LEPAGEVILLE MEMORIAL CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1885

ADDITONAL NAMES: Brewton Hill, Bruton Hill

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

LePageville Memorial Cemetery is a 19th-century site located in Savannah, Georgia, Chatham County since the late 1800’s. It is all that is left of a workers village set up to house laborers for the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railway, and the Savannah River wharves. In 1967, the LePageville Community, about 9 acres, was condemned and later demolished because of hazardous and unhealthy living conditions. Present day descendants and concerned citizens now work together to uncover and preserve the history of the LePageville Community and its embedded burial ground. What is left is only 3.85 acres that were sold to the LePageville Memorial Cemetery Corporation for $1.00 in 2002. We have lost the rest to development and commercialization. Records estimate that at least 500 people were buried at LePageville between 1888 and 1967. Although this African American property dates back to 1885, it was preceded in use as a part of the expansive 250-acre Brewton Hill Plantation which housed residents enslaved by Miles Brewton dating back to the late 1775. It was later purchased by Thomas Causton of Causton Bluff Plantation) in 1852. This land is also significant to Savannah-Chatham County history as the site of the Battle of Brewton Hill on December 29, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. This is documentation of the LePageville grounds during a key event in American history, not just African American history. The cemetery is the final resting place for laborers who worked on the Liberty ships during World War II, longshoremen, and other laborers crucial to the economy of Savannah, Georgia and the United States. Those buried include the formerly enslaved such as Henrietta Polite, born in 1861 and U.S. veterans. Sadly, no markers or tombstones of any type remain. We wish to remove the underbrush, identify burial sites, and create a beautiful green space to honor the interred.

BCN Contact Information:

Prof. Patricia A. West

authorpatwest@gmail.com