Month: March 2021

Lane Street Project: African-American cemeteries and cemetery projects.

Odd Fellows Cemetery, Wilson, N.C., January 2021.

It is impossible to list every African-American cemetery in the United States. Or even every abandoned African-American cemetery. Here, however, is the start of a running list of abandoned or abused African-American cemeteries whose particular circumstances have garnered media (or my) attention, and the organizations attempting to reclaim them. It takes its inspiration from the Adams-McEachin African American Burial Grounds Network Act, which proposes a voluntary national database of historic African-American burial grounds. This legislation would also establish a National Park Service program, in coordination with state, local, private, and non-profit groups, to educate the public and provide technical assistance for community members and public and private organizations to research, survey, identify, record, and preserve burial sites and cemeteries within the Network.

NORTH CAROLINA

  • Rountree, Odd Fellows and Vick Cemeteries, Lane Street Project, Wilson
  • Oakdale Cemetery, Wilson
  • South Asheville Cemetery, Asheville
  • Cemetery, Ayden
  • Black Bottom Memorial Cemetery, Belhaven
  • Cedar Grove Cemetery, Charlotte
  • Geer Cemetery, Friends of Geer, Durham
  • Oak Grove Cemetery, Elizabeth City
  • Elm City Colored Cemetery, Elm City
  • Greenleaf Cemetery, Goldsboro
  • Brown Hill and Cooper Field Cemeteries, Greenville
  • Bryan Cemetery, James City
  • Glades and McDowell Cemeteries, McDowell Cemetery Association, Marion
  • Greenwood Cemetery, New Bern
  • Oberlin Cemetery, Raleigh
  • Unity Cemetery, Rocky Mount
  • John N. Smith Cemetery, Cemetery Restoration Committee, Southport
  • Green Street/Union Grove Cemetery, Statesville
  • Maides Cemetery, Wilmington
  • Pine Forest Cemetery, Wilmington
  • Saint Phillips Moravian Second Graveyard, Winston-Salem

ALABAMA

ARKANSAS

  • Cherokee Cemetery, Huntington

FLORIDA

GEORGIA

ILLINOIS

KENTUCKY

  • African Cemetery #2, Lexington

MARYLAND

MICHIGAN

  • Detroit Memorial Park, Detroit

MISSISSIPPI

  • Old Lottville Cemetery, Farmhaven
  • Saint Luke’s Cemetery, Meridian
  • Noble Cemetery, Yazoo County

NEW JERSEY

  • African Burying Ground, Bedminster
  • Johnson Cemetery, Camden

NEW YORK

  • Mount Zion Cemetery, Kingston
  • African Burial Ground, Manhattan

PENNSYLVANIA

SOUTH CAROLINA

  • Douglas Cemetery, Columbia
  • Randolph Cemetery, Columbia
  • Silver Bluff Cemetery, Jackson
  • Old Soapstone Cemetery, “Little Liberia,” Pumpkintown

TENNESSEE

  • Beck Knob Cemetery, Chattanooga

TEXAS

VIRGINIA

WASHINGTON, D.C.

  • Columbian Harmony Cemetery
  • Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society Cemetery

WEST VIRGINIA

  • Anderson Cemetery, Glen Allen

“You got to know where you and how you got to where you are.” — Charles White, local historian, Buckingham County, Virginia

Darden boys’ basketball team.

From The Trojan, the yearbook of Charles H. Darden High School, 1948-49.

  • Charles E. Branford, coach
  • Jimmy Holliday, sophomore forward, born 1933 to W.H. Holliday
  • Clarence Reid, junior forward, born 1932 to Johnnie and Vinnie Reid
  • Harold Darden, sophomore forward, born 1933 to John and Estelle Darden
  • Richard Lewis, sophomore guard
  • Herman McNeil, freshman guard, born 1934 to Mathew and Ola Bell Jigett McNeil
  • Elroy Jones, senior guard, born 1930 to Wesley and Martha Taylor Jones
  • Offie Clark, junior center, born 1932 to William and Katie Elliott Clark
  • John Cotton, junior guard, born 1932 to Hilliard Cotton
  • Nelson Farmer, freshman guard
  • Charlie Floyd, sophomore center
  • George Woodard, sophomore guard
  • Raymond Harris, freshman forward, born 1933 to Frank and Mamie Carr Harris

“I didn’t want red. … Well, you know why.”

The pandemic has shuttered Vanilla Powell Beane‘s millinery shop, but could not stop her from creating a hat especially for Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri. Now This Politics delivers the take:

https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/posts/4787232737974845

In sad and loving memory of William Dixon, “daddy dear.”

Wilson Daily Times, 23 April 1946.

——

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 406 East Hines, owned and valued at $1200, William Dixon, 60, fireman “N&S R.R.”; wife Rachael, 62; and son Astor, 17.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 406 East Hines, owned and valued at $500, William Dixon, 72; wife Rachael, 62; and grandson Richard, 6. Also, at 918 Washington, Alonzo Foster, 37, and roomers Astor Dixon, 26, theatre doorman, and wife Minnie, 24, cook.

William Dixon died 21 April 1945 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 13 December 1880 in Dalton, Georgia, to Lyon Dixon and Bura Pender; was married to Rachel Dixon; lived at 406 East Hines; and was a retired railroad Norfolk & Southern fireman.

Snaps, no. 79: Dr. James A. Battle.

We met Dr. James A. Battle, born in Wilson in 1885 to Parker and Ella Battle, here. His granddaughter, Mae Castenell, recently shared several family photographs.

Dr. Battle and wife Della Plummer Battle. Della Battle’s sister was E. Courtney Plummer Fitts, who lived in Wilson.

The Battle house on West 4th Street in Greenville, North Carolina. The Battles and their young daughter Ella are seated in the lawn.

Dr. Battle, seated at left, with an unknown group of young African-American men.

Many thanks to Mae Castenell.