GREENWOOD CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1874

ADDITONAL NAMES: Greenwood Cemetery Preservation Association

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

Greenwood Cemetery was the first Black non-sectarian, commercial burial ground in the St Louis region post-Civil War. It is 31.85 acres with over 50,000 souls interred, including Harriet Scott, freedom suit plaintiff & wife of Dred Scott. Their case went before the U.S. Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford; Charlton Hunt Tandy, Civil war veteran & activist who assisted the "Exodusters" in their pursuit of a safe & better life; Lucy Delaney, who wrote the 1890s slave narrative, "From the Darkness Cometh the Light". Greenwood Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Separate and unequal in life as well as in death. Greenwood's history tells the story of those who helped shaped the city of St Louis and received little or no benefit of the city's prosperity.

BCN Contact Information:

Shelley Morris

smorris@greenwoodstl.org

www.greenwoodstl.org

ZION CHRISTIAN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1876

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S):

• Zion Community Project

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.

BCN Contact Information:

Zion Community Project

zioncommunityproject@gmail.com

https://zion-community.herokuapp.com/

WESTVIEW COMMUNITY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1940

ADDITONAL NAMES: Pompano Beach Historical Society

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

Westview Community Cemetery is located on the south side of West Copans Road, north of NW 22nd Court. The cemetery is situated in an industrial area with the western most boundary adjacent to Pilot Steel, a steel fabrication company, on the eastern boundary there are self-storage warehouses and other construction related businesses. According to Frank Cavaioli, the Christian Pallbearer Society formed Westview Cemetery during the Great Depression. Local resident Paul Hunter donated the land because the social norms in the City of Pompano Beach prevented the African American community from burial in the established city cemeteries. This was a result of defacto and dejure Jim Crow racial segregation that existed in Florida, and Broward County into the early 1970’s. It was the only cemetery African Americans could be laid to rest in Pompano Beach and among the few in Broward County until the 1960’s. As such, many important African American and Bahamian pioneering families and leaders in the early settlement of Pompano Beach are buried in Westview Community Cemetery. Some of the pioneers that settled this are include members of the Ali, Armbrister, Cason, Cooper, Grooms, McBride, Rhone, Rolle and Wooten families.

BCN Contact Information:

Roberto Fernandez, III

robferna@fiu.edu

NORTH WOODLAWN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1920

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

Woodlawn Cemetery was established during the 1920s when government officials restricted the African-American community to the northwest quadrant of Fort Lauderdale. It was the result of institutionalized racial segregation in Broward County from 1927 to 1964, and was the only cemetery African-Americans could be buried in until 1962. As such, many important African-American leaders in the early settlement of Fort Lauderdale are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. It is the only historic African-American cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, and is considered a rare remaining historic resource associated with the African-American community’s early history.

BCN Contact Information:

Roberto Fernandez, III

robferna@fiu.edu

STANTON FAMILY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1853

ADDITONAL NAMES: African American Heritage Preservation Foundation

AFFILIATION(S):

• Preservation Virginia

HISTORY:

Started in 1853, the Stanton Family Cemetery is a very rare surviving burying ground established by free blacks prior to the Civil War. The Stantons were one of the few extended free black families living in rural Virginia at the height of the slavery period.

The unfenced plot contains at least thirty-six marked burials, a large number for African American family cemeteries, and likely holds additional unmarked burials. Many of the graves have simple uninscribed headstones and footstones of the local slate. The cemetery was originally part of the a forty-six-acre farm purchased in 1853 by Nancy and Daniel Stanton. Although the family moved from the homestead in 1930, it retained ownership of the land and the cemetery and continued family burials there. The last occurred in 1941 when Harriet Stanton Scott, granddaughter of Nancy and Daniel Stanton, was interred.

The Stanton Family Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. The cemetery became the first known privately held free African American family cemetery to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2020, we conducted a Ground Penetration Radar survey and discovered an additional 13 unmarked graves bringing the total of burials to 49.

BCN Contact Information:

African American Heritage Preservation Foundation, Inc.

ringram@aahpfdn.org

www.aahpfdn.org

MOUNT OLIVE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1899

ADDITONAL NAMES: Saint Peters, Old Union, Mother AUMP Church

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

Mount Olive Cemetery sits on 13 acres just outside the city limits of Wilmington, Delaware. It holds the remains of approximately 13,000 Delawareans – the ancestors of Wilmington’s African American community. Active burials at Mount Olive began in 1899 and continued for another seven decades. But the history of Mount Olive begins long before.

Starting in the early 1800s, members of Rev. Peter Spencer’s congregation were buried on King Street in Wilmington, in a cemetery adjacent to Rev. Spencer’s church. Today, Peter Spencer Plaza in downtown Wilmington marks the location of the original church. But by 1861, further burials at that site were banned by city ordinance, and most of the graves were eventually moved to other cemeteries.

Thereafter, a number of small cemeteries, operated by various Black churches, sprung up in other parts of Wilmington and served the city’s African American population. Most can be found on an 1868 county map. They include: St. Peters Cemetery, 12th & Union Cemetery, Ezion Cemetery, Union Cemetery, and Old Union Cemetery (also called 12th & French Cemetery).

As Wilmington’s city limits expanded in the late 1800s and early 1900s, efforts to relocate Black cemeteries intensified. Old Union Cemetery records no burials after 1895. And in 1906, legal efforts were undertaken to condemn St. Peters Cemetery and neighboring Ezion Cemetery and convert the land into a city park.

By 1914, city leaders unfortunately succeeded in condemning all Black cemeteries inside the Wilmington city limits. Mount Olive was a fairly new cemetery at this time, and was situated outside the city limits, so it was not impacted by these actions. However, as the old Black cemeteries were razed, the disinterred remains and headstones were mostly brought to Mount Olive. In addition to accepting these older displaced remains, Mount Olive also received the majority of the city’s Black burials through the first half of the twentieth century. Burials at Mount Olive began to dwindle in the 1970s, as Delaware cemeteries became de-segregated. The last recorded burial was in September of 1987.

Today, Mount Olive holds the remains of veterans from the Civil War, Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Doctors, ministers and educators are all buried there – along with thousands of working-class people who helped make Wilmington the thriving community that it is today. A conductor on the Underground Railroad rests at Mount Olive, as do the parents of Louis Redding, the lawyer who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954.

BCN Contact Information:

Regina Barry

rmbarry1066@earthlink.net

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~rbarry4145/genealogy/MtOliveCemetery/MtOliveHome.html

CYPRESS GROVE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1840s

ADDITONAL NAMES: Hollywood Plantation, Valley Farm, Taylor Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• Arkansas Archeology Survey

HISTORY:

The Cypress Grove Cemetery is located on what was once the Hollywood Plantation, established during the 1840s by Dr. Jonathan Martin Taylor. At its peak, the plantation covered over 10,000 acres with 83 enslaved Black laborers. According to oral history, after Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, Taylor ordered that the slaves working on the Hollywood Plantation be freed. Some stayed on as hired servants to the remaining Taylor descendants, some traveled north with the help of Taylor and his resources, and others made homes elsewhere in southeastern Arkansas.

The Cypress Grove Cemetery was used for at least two decades into the twentieth century and shows evidence that local Black families belonged to fraternal organizations during that time. Two of the gravestones state that those buried beneath them were members of the Lily of the Valley Chapter 1007 of the Mosaic Templars of Winchester. Another gravestone states that its owner was a member of the Sweet Home Chamber 2620. Membership in such fraternal organizations offered insurance for grave markers and burial plots—which African Americans had no control over during slavery. This Black cemetery is one of many in southeastern Arkansas, which still has a large Black population today.

BCN Contact Information:

Dr. Matthew P. Rooney

mr096@uark.edu

https://archeology.uark.edu/

NEW GASCONY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1910

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S):

• Pine Bluff Historical Society

• Arkansas Archeological Survey of UAPB

HISTORY:

The cemetery does not appear on the 1905 map but does appear on the 1935 map. I do not know when it was established. The oldest burial found was 1915. The most recent burial was in 1972. The cemetery fell out of use soon after that as the community around it migrated away. Many moving north to Chicago. The stones found so far are very spread out, but mostly intact. There is very little damage to be found on each one so far. A few aluminum grave markers have been found, but no names or dates could be seen on them. There are plenty of grave depressions. There is even one grave enclosed with fencing, but I could not find a head stone for it. The cemetery is lined with tall trees and covered in vines. The cemetery is surrounded by row crop fields that vary between corn, soybean, and cotton. The area of the cemetery has been left to itself, unattended or molested.

New Gascony was founded in the 1800’s by a Frenchman. He named the town for his home of Gascony, France. There was an attempt made to have it be made the county seat. It was the county seat for a short time before reverting back to Pine Bluff. New Gascony was a popular stop for boats going down the Arkansas River, having it’s own dock. The mail route came through here from an early time in the county. It was even included on most train schedules in the area. A Mr. John Gracie was a large land holder, owning most of New Gascony. At times the town is referred to as Gracie. This town included a few churches, school houses, saloon, post office, corner store, and a few cemeteries. Several homes lined the streets at some point too. During the time of Mr. Gracie several Italian immigrants came to the area to work on the land as tenant farmers. They established a catholic church and cemetery not far from the New Gascony Cemetery. The catholic cemetery was used for the white Catholics of the are, while the New Gascony Cemetery was for the blacks (often Baptist). I think there was a Baptist church across from the cemetery at one point, but I can’t be sure yet. The area produced many crops and families over the years. But with the strong ties to slavery, rasicm never left the area. Black farmers were pushed off their own land, through dubiously legal means. Pine Bluff was often a site for KKK meetings and marches. The black community lessened and lessened until they were pretty much gone. The land that use to hold homes turned over to fields and trees. Old houses were often burned down or striped down for parts. A few blank spots remain as a reminder of what use to be. Very few people know of the cemetery now. Or if they know of it, they know only that it exists.

BCN Contact Information:

Michele Jones

michelethmpsn527@gmail.com

https://cemeteryhunter.home.blog/?frame-nonce=7cd88957cb

PIERCE CHAPEL AFRICAN AMERICAN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1834

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S):

• African American Cemetery Coalition

HISTORY:

The site of Pierce Chapel African American Cemetery was established ca. 1834 as a designated burial ground for enslaved Africans. Following the Civil War, their descendants and surrounding Black settlements continued the tradition of African burial practices at this site. They were amongst the first persons of color to own land in the Black Belt of Harris County, Ga. Many of whom were farmers, skilled artisans and military veterans having served honorably in World War I and II.

The recorded documentary history for Pierce Chapel Cemetery has been scarce and, in some cases, non-existent. Our recent discovery of archaeological artifacts and evidence of traditional African burial rituals presents an opportunity to raise cultural awareness, create a documentary history, and tell the stories of under-acknowledged communities and the lasting contributions that have shaped the landscape of American society.

BCN Contact Information:

Hamilton Hood Foundation

info@hamiltonhood.org

hamiltonhood.org

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

friendsofeastend.com

LAUREL CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1852

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

Laurel Cemetery was incorporated in 1852 as a nondenominational cemetery for African Americans of Baltimore, Maryland. In its early years, it was a premier burial site for people across Black Baltimore’s socioeconomic spectrum. However, by the 1930s, the site was overgrown and garbage strewn due to years of improper maintenance by the cemetery’s owners. In response to local neighborhood complaints and economic motivations on the part of the owners, legislation was successfully introduced by a local politician in 1957 to allow the demolition and sale of the property for commercial purposes. Although lot owners and NAACP lawyers petitioned to stop the demolition, the bulldozing proceeded following the removal of a few hundred graves to a new Laurel Cemetery site approximately fifty (50) miles away in Carroll County, Maryland. Today, the Belair-Edison Crossing shopping center occupies the footprint of the old cemetery. In the case of Baltimore’s Laurel Cemetery, the absence of historical memory and material culture signifying the existence of an important historical site is compelling. Although Baltimore’s history shows the loss of many cemeteries regardless of race or ethnicity, the size of the property (22 acres), number of burials, notoriety of individuals, and legal opposition to demolition make the Laurel Cemetery stand out as an important case study with broad implications. In particular, the overall number of burials is an important aspect of the site. The exact number will never be known as cemetery records were lost and Baltimore City death certificates do not start until 1875. Additionally, the property was known to have been used as a burial site for free and enslaved African Americans prior to its formal 1852 incorporation. Despite these blind spots, our review of Baltimore City death certificate has thus far revealed more than 13,000 burials from Laurel Cemetery (after a search of less than 30% of relevant records). At this point, it is safe to estimate that more than 20,000 burials will be revealed solely from available death certificate records.

BCN Contact Information:

Elgin Klugh

eklugh@coppin.edu

http://laurelcemetery.omeka.net/

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

HISTORIC UNITY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: March 1901

ADDITONAL NAMES: Unity Cemetery, Colored Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• North Carolina Military Affairs Commission

• NC State Archives

• Division of Natural Resources Commission

• African American Heritage Commission

HISTORY:

Unity Cemetery in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was formally established March 13, 1901. Located in Edgecombe County, the 18-acre cemetery is one of the oldest African American cemeteries in Eastern North Carolina. The historic site is divided into eight sections and is the resting place of civic leaders, military veterans, and many other influential and notable African Americans.

The North Carolina General Assembly enacts the incorporation of The Unity Cemetery Association of the Town of Rocky Mount in 1901. Citizens listed as incorporators are Jerry J. Cook(e), Fred Simpson, John D. Boddie, Richmond Lawrence, Jason W. Joyner, James Sessoms, Jr., R. E. Young, Isaac Wells, Thomas H. Boddie, Bradford Battle, their associates, and successors. In 1936 Unity Cemetery was sold to Chauncey C. Stokes. The Stokes family operated Stokes Mortuary until 2017.

BCN Contact Information:

Lois Watkins

Lois.Watkins@rockymountnc.gov

unitycemeterync.com

ODD FELLOWS CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1890s

ADDITONAL NAMES: Rountree Cemetery, Rountree-Vick Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• African-American Cemetery Coalition

HISTORY:

Odd Fellows Cemetery is at the center of three adjoining historic African-American cemeteries, each founded around the turn of the 20th century. (Rountree Cemetery is easternmost. Vick Cemetery is westernmost. Colloquially, and confusingly, all three cemeteries are collectively known as “Rountree Cemetery.” The City of Wilson erroneously refers to Odd Fellows and Vick cemeteries jointly as “Rountree-Vick Cemetery.”) Established as a burial ground by members of Hannibal Lodge #1552, Odd Fellows was active into the 1950s, though most burials were before World War II. It holds the remains of many early 20th century businesspeople and artisans, including Samuel H. Vick, arguably the most powerful, politically connected, and certainly the wealthiest African-American in Wilson from about 1890-1930.

Odd Fellows was abandoned circa 1960. The local lodge is defunct. Three-quarters of the two-acre is completely overgrown. Lane Street Project began leading volunteer cleanups in December 2020.

BCN Contact Information:

Lane Street Project

lisayhenderson@gmail.com

www.afamwilsonnc.com

MT. OLIVE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1922

ADDITONAL NAMES: Colored Burial Association

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

This historic African American Cemetery was established in 1922 when the Colored Burial Association purchased the site's acreage. Many of the first burials were relocated graves from the segregated West End cemetery, dating to 1856. The first burial at Mt. Olive was on May 5, 1922. The cemetery contains more than 250 known African Americans and 50+ unmarked graves. The Colored Burial Association maintained the cemetery until 1972.

BCN Contact Information:

Sherri Benn

benn@tarleton.edu

ELLIS CAMP

FOUNDED: 1878

ADDITONAL NAMES: Sugar Land 95 Burial Ground

AFFILIATION(S): Yes

• The Convict Leasing and Labor Project

HISTORY:

The Sugar Land 95 are the 95 African-American individuals unearthed during a construction in Sugar Land, Texas, 30 miles southwest of Houston. Archeologists found evidence that the 95 individuals were incarcerated under the state of Texas' convict leasing system and were buried in unmarked graves.

The first bone was found in February 2018, by a backhoe operator clawing through the dirt on land owned by the Fort Bend Independent School District. By the summer, the remains of 94 men and one woman, all African-American victims of convict leasing, had been recovered on the future site of a career and technical education center. Ranging in age from 14 to 70, the inmates had muscular builds but were malnourished, their bones misshapen from back-breaking, repetitive labor. They were buried in plain pine boxes sometime between 1878 and 1911.

BCN Contact Information:

Convict Leasing and Labor Project

cllptexas@gmail.com

https://www.cllptx.org

NANTUCKET HISTORIC COLOURED CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Earliest records suggest 1805

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S):

• Nantucket Cemetery Commission

HISTORY:

Public cemeteries on Nantucket were established by the Select Board in the "Common and Undivided Lands of the Town and County of Nantucket. While known by various other names throughout its history, "Historic Coloured Cemetery," captures its essence including the antique spelling of "Coloured." Nantucket has had a Black community for centuries; evidence of this is the historic African Meeting House on York Street, which was at the heart of the Black community. Much more can be found on the website of the Nantucket Historical Association and its pages on the public cemeteries: https://cemeteries.nha.org/colored-cemetery. Despite the history of the cemetery's name in the NHA description, more recently, the Black community on Nantucket agreed to the current name including "Historic" providing that the antique spelling of "Coloured" was used also. The most recent interment was Dr. Donald Steward, former President of Spelman College who went into a family-owned plot.

BCN Contact Information:

Chair of the Cemetery Commission (Department of Public Works)

dpw@nantucket-ma.gov

JOHN N SMITH CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1880

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S):

• John N Smith Cemetery Restoration and Preservation Inc

HISTORY:

The John N Smith Cemetery was established in 1880 when land was sold to the CME Church for the sole purpose to have a permanent cemetery for the African American community of Southport, NC. During the 1870's the 2 acre site, within the Gullah Geechee Corridor, was an unofficial burial grounds. The earliest marked gravesite is the one for John N Smith. Buried here are people who experienced slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement. Veterans of every US War from the Civil War through the Gulf Wars are buried here, including Buffalo soldiers. People from all occupations: fishermen, farmers, teachers, merchants, nurses, domestic workers, firemen, police officers and civil rights workers as well as their children are buried here. In 1949, the five local Black Churches, purchased an additional 1.5 acres. It is the largest Black Cemetery in Brunswick County. The exact number of persons interred is not precisely known. In addition to the approximate 500 markers, a GPR study identified 1243 unmarked gravesites.

The entire Cemetery is owned, managed and maintained by a non-profit, 501c3, the John N Smith Cemetery Restoration and Preservation Inc. This organization utilizes the Cemetery as a public education venue (an outdoor museum created in 2021) to teach the real history about the positive community contributions of those buried there and the challenges they confronted as a result of bigotry, violence and discrimination. In 2021, the Cemetery was designated and now listed on the National Park Service Registry of Historic Places.

BCN Contact Information:

Judy Gordon

jsgord@att.net

johnnsmithcemetery.org

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

aahgs.org

BROOKLYN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1882

ADDITONAL NAMES: Bethlehem Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• Historic Athens

• Morton Theatre Corporation

HISTORY:

Established in 1882, the Brooklyn Cemetery (http://www.brooklyncemetery.org/)—founded by the Bethlehem Cemetery Society—was one of the first African American cemeteries in Athens, Georgia. Located on the western side of Athens, the cemetery served as a final resting place for many African Americans from Athens and surrounding communities. The people buried there were largely working class—tradespeople of the period, farmers, preachers, teachers, and professionals in the service industry.

Known burials include 54 documented veterans of the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean War. Several historic African American churches used the cemetery, including Hill First Baptist Church (the oldest African American Baptist church in Athens, Georgia; Mount Pleasant Baptist Church (established in 1869), First A.M.E. (the oldest African American church in Athens, established as Pierce Chapel in 1866) and Hill Chapel Baptist Church (established in 1924). Three long-standing Athens funeral homes, Hurley, Mack and Payne, and Jackson-McWhorter also had designated areas in the cemetery.

The nearly 10-acre site has been the subject of restoration and preservation efforts for nearly 20 years, roughly three decades after the cemetery began to fall into disrepair. Although many of the temporary grave markers have been lost, some remain standing—strong and visible, while remnants of others remain. Volunteers have unearthed old, weathered stones and other artifacts, cleared away tons of debris, and documented roughly 1,000 known burials, with the last one occurring in 1993. The Brooklyn Cemetery is owned by the Bethlehem Cemetery Society.

BCN Contact Information:

Kimberly Davis

info@brooklyncemetery.org

https://www.historicathens.com/