Zion Christian Cemetery
Site Brief:
Founded: 1876
Location: Memphis, TN
Additional name(s): None
Affiliate group(s):
History:
Founded in 1876 by a group of freed slaves calling themselves the Sons of Zion, this cemetery on South Parkway in Memphis was the African American community's major cemetery for approximately 40 years. Zion Cemetery is the oldest African American cemetery in Memphis. The public library has compiled a listing of all persons buried in the cemetery from 1896 onwards. There are likely over 30,000 people buried there on 15 acres. The deceased include, among other notables, Georgia Patton Washington, the first black female physician in Tennessee; Calvin McDowell, William Stewart and Thomas Moss, the friends of Ida B. Wells whose 1892 triple lynching inspired her national anti-lynching campaign; Thomas Cassels, a lawyer who served in the Tennessee General Assembly; Benjamin Hooks' grandfather, Charles; and musician W. C. Handy's infant daughter.
The cemetery was largely abandoned after the 1970s until control of the site was taken over by the CME church and, eventually, the volunteer organization known as the Zion Community Project. Efforts to clean and maintain the cemetery have now evolved into plans for devising educational programming, additional historical designations, preservation, and perhaps some restoration. The site was added to the Register of Historic Places in 1990.
