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

GOOD HOPE CHURCH BLACK CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Around the 1880s

ADDITONAL NAMES: Good Hope Colored Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• Newton County Community Remembrance Project

HISTORY:

The 119 year old cemetery lies on three acres of land in Good Hope Mississippi, in Newton, County Research found over 500 burials in the cemetery. I remember as a child I remember during church service, twice a year, the pastor would announce community clean-up dates for the cemetery. Clean -up days happened each Saturday before Memorial Day and the first Sunday in August in time for the annual revival meeting at the church. the men, women and children would clean and elder women would prepare food and drinks. These events were major community activities and served to renew community ties.

In recent years clen-up and restoration is done by the descendants of those laid to rest there; On the first Sunday in August many family members throughout the country journeys home to the almost deserted Good Hope Settlement to do as our ancestors did for the past hundred years, to care for the cemetery- to ensure it will continue to be a visual history for everyone. Black History: 1908 two Good Hope community members were lynched and is buried in the cemetery. With the help of the Equal Justice Initiative 2021 a memorial marker was placed in the Good Hope Church Cemetery.

BCN Contact Information:

Joyce Salter Johnson

joyceboggess39@gmail.com

https://salter-saulter.com/

EASTERN LIGHT CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1864

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds

HISTORY:

Eastern Light Cemetery in Altoona was created in 1864 and the land which fronts 10th Street and Oak Ridge Cemetery was purchased by John Ferguson, George Hooper, and John Alexander for African American citizens of Altoona. In addition, to these men, George M. Jackson, Henry Johnson, George Payne, and Allan (or Allen) Hurley were its first stockholders. It houses the remains of 6 USCT soldiers, the remains of the first Black high school graduate of Altoona High and the remains of the youngest son and his wife of Blair County's best known Underground Railroad conductor.

BCN Contact Information:

Blair County Branch NAACP #2252

admin@blairconaacp.org

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

MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1875

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Mount Hope Cemetery, located in Martinsburg, West Virginia, holds a significant place in the local community and in the broader history of African Americans in the region. Founded in the late 19th century, Mount Hope became the final resting place for many prominent African Americans who played pivotal roles in the community.

The cemetery served as a burial ground for formerly enslaved individuals, Civil War veterans, prominent community leaders, and ordinary citizens. It stands as a testament to the resilience and strength of the African American community in the face of adversity. Many notable individuals are buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, including veterans of the Civil War and other conflicts, as well as prominent local figures such as educators, business leaders, and civil rights activists. Their graves serve as reminders of the contributions African Americans have made to the local community and to the broader history of the United States.

Mount Hope Cemetery is not just a burial ground; it is a place of remembrance and reflection, where the stories of those who came before us are preserved for future generations. Its significance to the local community and to black history cannot be overstated, making it a site of great importance and reverence.

BCN Contact Information:

Devin Dozier

mthopecemeterywv@gmail.com

GREENLAWN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1821/1822

ADDITONAL NAMES: Eleven Stadium, Burying Ground, Old Burying Ground, Union Cemetery, City Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program

HISTORY:

Abandoned, neglected, and built upon for generations, the approximately 4-acre tract is known as the “Old Burying Ground”. This was a segregated cemetery designated for African Americans and poor Euro- Americans. In total, it encompassed 25 acres, with the White River forming the boundary next to the Old Burying Ground, where the African American citizens were buried. The cemetery was closed to new burials in the 1870s.

In 1894, the city passed an ordinance was declaring the Greenlawn Cemetery and tracts adjacent to it a public nuisance. The ordinance described the area as falling into a state of decay and neglect. This led to the removal of fencing, vegetation, of uninterred corpses, and other contents of the vaults. The vaults were destroyed. Soon the Greenlawn Cemetery was abandoned and those bodies which were not washed away or damaged by industrialization are still there.

Today the city is investing in a new “Sports Complex", and part of that development will include building a new bridge to span the White River, called the Henry Street Bridge. The footings for this bridge will be on top of the Old Burying Ground, where the Black settlers were interred. We are advocating for this to be rectified by an intentional mitigation before construction begins.

BCN Contact Information:

Indiana Remembrance Coalitiion

haselnuss132@gmail.com

Www.indianalandmarks.org

UNION BETHEL CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1831

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• Lower Township Historic Preservation Commission

HISTORY:

By the early 1800's, there was a community of free Blacks, and most likely some escaped enslaved people, located in a rural wooded area. Most members of the community were farmers and some had been formerly enslaved. A group of trustees approached a farm owner to purchase land to build a church to serve this community. In 1831, land was conveyed "that they shall erect and build...a house or place of worship for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church" and later "burying ground for Coloured people." A church was built but is no longer standing.

The earliest burial in the cemetery was in 1834 and the latest in 1947. Over the years, various groups have participated in efforts to restore the cemetery and preserve it. In 2018, the Lower Township Historic Preservation Commission took over the care of the cemetery and are the caretakers today. The cemetery is notable for the 16 veterans of the Civil War, 15 of whom served in the US Colored Troops and one in the Navy as well as one veteran who served in both WWI and WWII.

BCN Contact Information:

Lower Township Historic Preservation Commission

Pary Tell

parytell@gmail.com

REST HILL CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1867 - 1869

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Rest Hill Cemetery on Trousdale Ferry Pike in Lebanon, Tennessee was included on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 for its significance in the African American community during the Reconstruction Era. Established in 1867-69, the burials reflect the original African American community in Lebanon which grew with the assistance of the Freedman's Bureau and the racial segregation of the Jim Crow period. Rest Hill served as the only African American burial ground in Lebanon from 1869-1933 when African American were banned from burial in the city cemetery. To this day, Rest Hill still serves the community.

Our goal is to put head stones on all the unmarked graves.

BCN Contact Information:

Harry Watkins

wccl5353@gmail.com

MACEDONIA AFRICAN METHODIST CHURCH CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1880

ADDITONAL NAMES: Warsaw AME cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• Johns Creek Historical Society

HISTORY:

THE CEMETERY

Hidden up a steep winding driveway near one of the busiest intersections in the City of Johns Creek, Georgia is a small African-American cemetery. The Macedonia African Methodist Church Cemetery (also known as Warsaw AME cemetery) is known to be the burial place of at least two who were enslaved and others who were first and second generation descendants of slaves on local farms. The cemetery has been abandoned for years and is in need of headstone repairs, identification of unmarked graves, and research to learn about those buried on the site.

The Johns Creek Historical Society involvement- Several years ago, the Johns Creek Historical Society took on the project of preserving and improving the cemetery by working with the City and by researching those buried at the site. This project is led by Board Member Kirk Canaday.

Our efforts follow those of others. In 1998, the Warsaw Historic Preservation Society was formed and through their efforts, Fulton County obtained a maintenance easement to the property. The group also tried to have an overlay historic district formed for the area surrounding the intersection of Medlock and State Bridge roads. In 2016, Preserve Johns Creek contracted an archaeological survey by New South Associates that mapped marked graves and potential unmarked graves.

BCN Contact Information:

Johns Creek Historical Society

info@johnscreekhistory.org

johnscreekhistory.org

UNION CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1900

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• Ujima Union Cemetery Project

HISTORY:

Union Cemetery, named in honor of the two dozen veterans of the Civil War who are buried here, was established in 1900 by Carlisle resident Robert Thompson, Sr. (1828-1900). Thompson was one of the most prominent African-Americans in central Pennsylvania during his day. From his birth, an enslaved person, in Front Royal, VA to his death in his home on Carlisle's South Street, Thompson lived the unique life of an entrepreneur who owned a large amount of property and businesses in the Carlisle and Harrisburg areas. The land for the cemetery was purchased in the 1890s after Lincoln Cemetery, located at the corner of North Pitt Street and West Penn Street, became full. Upon Mr. Thompson's death, several generations of the Thompson family managed the site before it was taken over by the Borough of Carlisle, which still maintains the cemetery. The earliest gravestone is dated 1885. Union Cemetery follows one of the earliest burial customs by burying everyone facing east.

BCN Contact Information:

Ujima Union Cemetery Project

sigvoice@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/friendsofUnionCemetery

ENSLAVED BURIAL GROUND CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1850s

ADDITONAL NAMES: Slave Burial Ground in Old Round Rock Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Old Round Rock Cemetery was founded through land purchases in the mid-1850s with one-half acre to reserve for a the enslaved and freedmen of Round Rock, TX. In 1979 the Texas Historical Commission designated (with a historical marker) the half-acre portion of the cemetery known as the "Slave Burial Ground in Old Round Rock Cemetery”.

Text on the marker

Near the gravesite of outlaw Sam Bass, one-half acre of Old Round Rock Cemetery was set aside for slave burials. Enclosed by cedar posts and barbed wire, sites are marked head and foot with large limestone rocks. Some rocks are hand-grooved with names and dates. White graves here are dated as early as 1851. The first marked grave of a freed slave is dated 1880. Although there are 40 to 50 known burial sites of freedmen and the burial ground is still in use, no interments of former slaves occurred after the turn of the century. (1979)

BCN Contact Information:

Richard Southwick

richard.southwick@gmail.com

HERNANDO COMMUNITY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1982

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Hernando Community Cemetery is one of two in Hernando, Citrus County Florida that bears the name. This Hernando Cemetery is an active Black cemetery. The first burials in this cemetery were in 1982. This cemetery is well maintained, and the gravestones are in very good condition.

BCN Contact Information:

Thomas Bowen

capttcb035@gmail.com

OLD CANAAN FREEDOM COLONY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Pre-1865

ADDITONAL NAMES: Canaan Missionary Baptist Church

AFFILIATION(S):

• Canaan Baptist Church Cemetery Association

HISTORY:

The Old Canaan cemetery site was one of the original burial sites for the Texas Freedom Colony established immediately after slavery ended in 1865. The cemetery along with a church and school were established in 1870 and included a thriving, self-sufficient farming and ranching community.

In about 1935 nightriders, also known as Klansmen, burned the Canaan-Rosenwald Elementary School and threatened to burn the Canaan Church down if they would not move. Due to these threats and pressure, the church and school were relocated about a half mile south of the original location.

The cemetery is now on private property, and we have been working for several years to reclaim the site.

BCN Contact Information:

Earnol Brewster

ebrewster1906@gmail.com

FRATERNAL MEMORIAL PARK

FOUNDED: 1928

ADDITONAL NAMES: Grasselli, Memorial Park, Fraternal Park, and Mount Zion

AFFILIATION(S):

• Historic Clarksburg WV Cemetery Preservation Alliance

HISTORY:

Although little information on the cemetery is available it is known that it was utilized for predominately African Americans and burials began in 1928 and continued through to the last known burial in 1978. Other information obtained concerning the cemetery consists of World War I and World War II War veterans buried in the Cemetery Upon investigation of the Cemetery Headstones and additional research from the WV death indexes database (West Virginia Department of Arts, Vital Research Records Search Selection, 2018), HRC identified a total of seven men that are World War I veterans that are buried within The Fraternal

Memorial Cemetery. HRC identified one man that may be a World War II veteran and we have identified his draft card. In addition, his death certificate was checked in the veteran box, but the war was not named. An additional four men were found to have draft registration cards from fold3 (Ancestry, 2018) military database and The National Archives online database (Administration, n.d.). The four individuals with draft cards could not be definitively concluded that they went to War.

BCN Contact Information:

Shaun Jedju

ShaunMJedju@hcwvcpa.org

www.hcwvcpa.org

ESSIE J HANDY MEMORIAL CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1949

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Elisha and Essie Handy came to La Fayette in 1925. They were educators and active in civic and religious activities. In 1940 their oldest son, Ralph, died from tuberculosis and was buried in the only cemetery in La Fayette for African-Americans at the time. Mrs. Handy went throughout the community asking for contributions to purchase land from Judge Grady for a new African-American cemetery. In 1949 she had her son's body exhumed and transferred to the new community cemetery bearing her name. Mrs. Handy led a prolific life. In 1945 she became the first African-American to vote in Chambers County and she was recognized as a Civil Rights leader in the area. Mrs. Handy met with President Lyndon B. Johnson and was invited to his Inauguration in 1965. Mrs. Handy privately operated the cemetery until her death in 1977. Subsequently, the cemetery was deeded to the City of Lafayette who recognized Mrs. Handy for her achievements and impact on the community. Listed in the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register on October 17, 2018

BCN Contact Information:

Albert Handy

aehandy@gmail.com