A few more photos from Green Street Cemetery, where the City of Statesville is modeling care and inclusion for cities like Wilson, which are standing off to the side, muttering under their breath.

The recently dedicated signboard at the cemetery, which includes a map of the GPR survey,  a history of the site, a QR code, and an impressive set of public and private partners.

On the back, a list of the roughly 1400 known burials — of 2200+ detected graves — in Green Street. Few of the graves are marked.

John Walker Colvert, John Walker Colvert II, Lon Walker Colvert, Adeline Hampton Colvert, Selma Eugina Colvert, Lewis Colvert, and Laura Colbert are my people.

Edmond and Esther Petty are my extended kin. Both grew up enslaved in Wilkes County, and Edmond Petty was a soldier in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. This corner of North Carolina was far from Union lines, and African-American veterans were rare. Petty’s story was self-authored: Union General George Stoneman’s Raid passed through Wilkes County in late March 1865, capturing Wilkesboro. Petty escaped the Benjamin F. Petty plantation and fell in with Union troops as contraband, following them all the way to Tennessee, where he enlisted to fight the Confederacy.

Photos of Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2024.