Here’s my most recent request for public records, made 25 February 2020 to the Wilson Cemetery Commission:
Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, G.S. §132-1, I am requesting an opportunity to inspect or obtain copies of the following public records related to the Old Negro Cemetery (also known as the colored cemetery, Oakdale or Oaklawn Cemetery) and Rest Haven Cemetery:
- Any and all documents showing the identity of persons buried in the Old Negro Cemetery during the period of its active existence
- Any and all documents related to the Old Negro Cemetery
- Any and documents showing the identity of persons whose graves were moved from the Old Negro Cemetery to Rest Haven Cemetery in or before 1941
- Any and all documents, including but not limited to maps, plats, surveys and photographs, showing the location of graves and grave markers in the Old Negro Cemetery at the time the City of Wilson or the Cemetery Commission moved graves from the Old Negro Cemetery to Rest Haven Cemetery in 1941
- Any and all documents, including but not limited to maps, plats, surveys and photographs, showing the relocation of graves and grave markers to Rest Haven Cemetery from the Old Negro Cemetery in 1941
Oakdale was the cemetery located near present-day Cemetery Street. The request was spurred by this article.
The reply? The Cemetery Commission has no documents responsive to this request.
How do they not have any documents associated with your request? Could it be in the state archives?
A few reasons. First, general poor record-keeping and retention by the city, as well as neglect of East Wilson institutions, but also, Wilson’s Black public cemeteries were overseen by a Colored Cemetery Commission whose records were probably held in someone’s home and passed from one person to another, eventually to be thrown out. The same is true of Mercy Hospital’s records.