Welcome from the Director

Black Cemeteries are Black History. I am proud to say we created a network to tell these stories.

Welcome to the Black Cemetery Network. I share your passion and your determination to advocate for the dignity of those buried in cemeteries across our nation that have been ignored, abandoned, underfunded, disturbed, erased, or literally built over in many cases. Our mission is clear—protection, preservation, and lifting our collective voices in order to raise awareness and educate others because #Black Graves Matter.

As we all know, Black Cemeteries contain stories about people, places, and families which are often missing from the larger public narrative. BCN connects people and communities to black cemeteries and forgotten histories through research, advocacy, and collaboration. Our network places work being done at local and regional levels into dialog at a national level for legislative action and support. There is power in numbers and strength in working together to make our message heard.

Although still a work in progress, the launch of the BCN is an important step in a long journey! Already we have 13 registered sites in 5 states and are looking to keep building.

I look forward to working with you as we grow the BCN network— one cemetery, one advocate, one resource, one story, and one legislative action at a time.

This is a call to action and BCN is our collective front porch. I am happy to welcome you and I invite you to share and to learn.

Antoinette T. Jackson, PhD, BCN Founder and Director