SITE DIRECTORY
To learn more about any of the BCN sites listed below, click “Read more” to view individual site briefs. To search for a specific BCN site, use the search bar below:
Angel Visit Baptist Church Cemetery
ANGEL VISIT BAPTIST CHURCH CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1867
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
Angel Visit Baptist Church Cemetery has been a burial place for African Americans since the 19th century. Whereas we do not know the date of the first burial, the church purchased its first parcel of land in 1867 and we believe that the cemetery was started soon thereafter.
BCN Contact Information:
Bessida Cauthorne White
angelvisitbaptistchurch@gmail.com
Coleman Cemetery
COLEMAN CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1966
ADDITONAL NAMES: The Churches and Fraternities Cemetery
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
The Coleman cemetery formed on July 18, 1966. The founders of this cemetery are Robert Butler, Father A.M Cochran, Willie Dickerson, Mary Gaddis, Clinton Jackson, Rev S.B. Ross, Rev R.B. strong, George Turner, Ella Washington, W.F Watson, and Rev J.G. West.
BCN Contact Information:
Brenda Seegars
Brendaseegars@yahoo.com
Sharswood Plantation Cemetery
SHARSWOOD PLANTATION CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1850s
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
Fred Miller Purchased property in southern Virginia. He did not know it at the time, but his new property was once a plantation. Named Sharswood, it was built in the 1850s by a slave-owning uncle and nephew who shared his last name. Miller and his family were surprised to find that their ancestors were once enslaved at Sharswood.
Fred Miller plans to clean up the cemetery and is in the process of creating a non-profit foundation to also restore the slave quarters on the property to help educate people interested in the history of slavery. Miller talks more about his experience and story on 60 minutes.
BCN Contact Information:
Fredrick Miller
sharswoodmanorestate@gmail.com
Evergreen Cemetery
EVERGREEN CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1891
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
Founded in 1891 by a private African American association, Evergreen Cemetery is the final resting place of an estimated 50,000 people—complete records are not available for the site—among them some of Richmond’s most prominent residents. Maggie L. Walker, a pioneering banker, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, was buried there in 1934. Yards from her lies John Mitchell Jr., outspoken editor of the Richmond Planet newspaper and member of the city’s Common Council from 1888 to 1898. Other luminaries interred at Evergreen include Dr. Sarah Garland Jones, the first African American and first woman licensed to practice medicine in Virginia, and the Reverend J. Andrew Bowler, who helped organize the first school for Black students in Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood and then served on its faculty for more than fifty years.
For a time in the early 20th century, Evergreen was a preeminent burial site for Black Richmond. But the community it served was increasingly burdened by Virginia’s system of legal discrimination. The weight of Jim Crow placed inordinate pressures on families and organizations, drastically limited economic opportunity, and posed a daily threat to Black people’s health, safety, and dignity. Many African Americans left the area. Others could not afford to continue maintaining family plots, though many families tried.
The 59-acre cemetery began to decline in the mid-20th century, even as the all-white Virginia General Assembly funded upkeep at many Confederate cemeteries. Successive owners have tried and failed to maintain the cemetery, including a series of initiatives led by funeral directors in the 1970s. Newspaper articles from the 1960s and 1970s report on the rampant overgrowth at Evergreen, as well as chronic vandalism. Over the years, volunteer efforts have made some progress at clearing the cemetery, particularly its center section, but have not been able to hold back nature. The cemetery’s last owner, the Enrichmond Foundation, collapsed in 2022. The fate of Evergreen remains unclear as of this writing in February 2023.
BCN Contact Information:
Erin Hollaway Palmer
ehollaway@gmail.com
Woodland Cemetery
WOODLAWN CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1917
ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A
AFFILIATION(S): N/A
HISTORY:
Opened in 1917, during the Jim Crow era in the capital of the confederacy, Woodland's roads and front gate were built by local African American contractors. In 1916 when the cemetery was under construction, the pond was still in use as indicated by the newspaper advertisement. Families would picnic by the pond and paddle boat in it. Mitchell’s desire was to create a dignified and respectful place for African American families to come and pay homage to their deceased family members. Mitchel named the roads at Woodland after African American heroes of that era as a counter to the erection of the confederate statues on Monument Ave. Not only are the elite of Richmond’s black community buried here but Woodland has served as a dignified resting place for our US veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Woodland Cemetery is a testament to the perseverance, dignity, and the desires of the African American community to be respected. John Mitchell was acutely aware of these feelings and his vision provided a way for respect to be shown with pride.
The significance of this cemetery is that it is evidence of a history that will be lost if we do not preserve it. Our children will grow up ignorant of the accomplishments and contributions of a whole segment of people who greatly contributed to the development of the City of Richmond. Considering the criticism and removal of African American history from our schools, Woodland will be a counter to an unbalanced history that is taught today by referencing the true history of the struggles and accomplishments of African Americans. Without Woodland’s historical contribution our children will not only grow up unaware of their history and leaving many to feel insignificant and marginalized.
BCN Contact Information:
Marvin Harris
mharris@mapinv.com
Anderson Cemetery
ANDERSON CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1867
ADDITONAL NAMES: None
AFFILIATION(S): None
HISTORY:
Anderson Cemetery is one of the earliest black cemeteries in the Yellow Tavern area of Henrico County, outside Richmond, VA. William Kennedy, clerk of Mount Olive Baptist Church, formed the Sons of Jacob, a fraternal organization which pledged "to attend to each other in times of sickness and distress and to see each other decently buried after death." This two-acre cemetery continued to serve the community for more than a century and includes the graves of ex-slaves, freeborn blacks, farmers, pastors, business leaders and war veterans. Grave markers provided by families, church aid clubs, fraternal groups and other organizations reflect the strong bonds formed across the community.
BCN Contact Information:
Tony Wharton
bluepeter37@gmail.com
Fredrick Douglas CEMETERY
FREDRICK DOUGLAS CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1827
ADDITONAL NAMES: Douglas
AFFILIATION(S): None
HISTORY:
There are records showing 2000 buried at Douglas but only 650 graves with headstones. Most of the people buried at Fredrick Douglas were born into slavery. The last burial took place in 1975. This cemetery has been neglected over the past 100 years. There are apartment buildings built close to the graves and flooding is a big issue when it rains. The cemetery was renamed in 1896 after Fredrick Douglas.
BCN Contact Information:
Michael Johnson
michael.johnson@alexandriava.gov
Helping Hand Cemetery
HELPING HAND CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1897
ADDITONAL NAMES: None
AFFILIATION(S): None
HISTORY:
Helping Hand Cemetery was deeded to five African-American Trustees in 1897 "for the sole purpose of establishing a cemetery for colored people" in Courtland, Virginia. Before this; however, according to records of some descendants, there were people interred at this graveyard site during and post slavery. Originally called The Courtland Colored Cemetery, the name was changed in 1912 to Helping Hand along with the establishment of a benevolent organization acting as a health and welfare club accepting 20 cents a month from community members, and paying out sick, unemployment, and death benefits. We are currently in possession of ledger books from 1918 - 1995 that lists the names of the community members who joined this club.
Descendants of these original trustees, came together in 2016 to form a new Helping Hand Trustee Board determined to return the cemetery to its original historical significance and beauty. The Town of Courtland itself has received historical significance based on the history and progress of African-Americans in this segregated town, the town where Nat Turner was tried and killed three blocks from our cemetery. Eligibility for a series of grants has enabled us to restore and maintain the cemetery consisting of approximately 650 interred.
BCN Contact Information:
Dolores Peterson, Trustee/Historian Helping Hand Cemetery Club
dvlp13@yahoo.com
EAST END CEMETERY
EAST END CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1897
ADDITONAL NAMES: Greenwood Cemetery
AFFILIATION(S):
Friends of East End Cemetery
HISTORY:
Founded in 1897, East End Cemetery is the final resting place of an estimated 15,000 African Americans, among them some of the most prominent Black Richmonders of the turn of the 20th century. The cemetery was established the year after the U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, affirmed the constitutionality of racial segregation, which followed African Americans to the grave.
Even as Jim Crow laws proliferated across the South, Black Virginians continued to build and nurture their communities and their institutions while fighting to participate in broader civic life. In the decades following the Civil War, they created churches, schools, businesses, social clubs, mutual aid societies. Evidence of these is everywhere at East End.
BCN Contact Information:
Erin Hollaway Palmer
ehollaway@gmail.com
Daughters of Zion Cemetery
DAUGHTERS OF ZION CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1873
ADDITONAL NAMES: Society, Samaritan, Oak Hill, Zion
AFFILIATION(S): None
HISTORY:
Over the years, the Daughters of Zion Cemetery, located on the corner of Oak and First Street South in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been known by many names including Society, Zion, Old Oakwood, Oak Hill and Samaritan Cemetery. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. The approximately two-acre burial ground was established in 1873 by members of the Daughters of Zion Society, an African American women’s benevolent organization that sought to support the needs of African Americans. One of the important efforts conducted by this group was to provide a place of dignified burial. Although the Daughters of Zion Cemetery remained an active burial ground until 1995, after 1933 there was no longer an organization available to maintain the cemetery that had fallen into disrepair. In the early 1970s, the City declared the cemetery abandoned and assumed responsibility for its upkeep.
In 2015, the Preservers of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery organized with the mission to restore and preserve the historic cemetery that was subsequently included on Preservation Virginia’s 2016 list of Most Endangered Historic Places. After the City allocated $80K to assist with the restoration efforts, the Preservers began working with the City to address the broken and discolored markers, erosion and trees that were in decline. The Preservers also arranged to have ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys conducted which revealed that the cemetery contained more than twice the 300 graves originally estimated. The Preservers are continuing their restoration efforts and through extensive research are attempting to identify as many of the unknown burials as possible. The Daughters of Zion Cemetery is one of a few remaining sites in Charlottesville that retains a connection to the vital role played by a Reconstruction-era African American mutual aid society in the development of Charlottesville’s post-Emancipation African American community.
BCN Contact Information:
dozcpreservers@gmail.com
https://daughtersofzioncemetery.org
Oak Lawn Cemetery
OAK LAWN CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1885
ADDITONAL NAMES: Oaklawn Cemetery
AFFILIATION(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
Quarter Place Cemetery
QUARTER PLACE CEMETERY
FOUNDED: 1794
ADDITONAL NAMES: Patrick Henry's Red Hill
AFFILIATION(S): None
HISTORY:
The Quarter Place Cemetery is nestled at the end of a half-mile trail at Patrick Henry’s Red Hill. Spanning generations since 1794, there have been 147 graves identified in the one-acre space. To the local community, this is a sacred burial ground. Many of those buried there also had family members buried in the local African American church cemeteries.
As a plantation cemetery, this space contains yucca plants, periwinkle, as well as field stones to mark the graves. It has been so secluded, many of the grave-shaft depressions are still visible. In an archaeological survey completed in 2019, there was found a spot near the middle of the cemetery in which no graves lie, indicating that the burials were planned as a sacred place for the black community to gather. Through genealogical research efforts, it is evident that many descendants of those interred at the cemetery still reside nearby. This site is critical to showing African American resilience, familial ties, and culture in Southside Virginia—a place where very few non-church, black cemeteries remain.
BCN Contact Information:
Hope Marstin
info@redhill.org
Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground
Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground
FOUNDED: 1816
LOCATION: Richmond, VA
ADDITIONAL NAMES: 2nd African Burial Ground
HISTORY:
The Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground was established in 1816 by the City of Richmond, VA as the replacement for the Burial Ground for Negroes (now referred to as the African Burial Ground) in Shockoe Bottom. The new burying ground on Shockoe Hill, was laid out along the northern end of Fifth Street near the city’s poorhouse. It began as two adjoining one-acre plots, one for free people of color and one for the enslaved. The grounds expanded greatly over time to encompass as many as 31 acres. With an estimated 22,000 plus interments, it was/is likely the largest burial ground for free people of color and the enslaved in the United States. After closing the burying ground in 1879 due to overcrowd conditions, the city repurposed the site, making the burial ground unrecognizable today.
There are likely hundreds of thousands, if not millions of descendants of the people who were buried within these grounds all over the United States (though not yet aware of their connections). The burial ground and its people have suffered many abuses/desecrations over its long history, and it remains under threat to this day. Present threats include the DC2RVA high-speed rail project, and the proposed widening of I-64. Please see the Wikipedia page for the Shockoe Hill African Burial Ground for additional information, or any of the other sources listed below.
RESOURCE LINKS:
BCN Contact Information:
Lenora McQueen
shockoehillafricanbg@gmail.com