As I await the City’s response to my August 5 public records request, here’s a quick rundown of the high- and lowlights of the Vick Cemetery saga:

• in December 2021, Wilson City Council voted to erect permanent interpretive signage at Vick Cemetery. We’re still waiting.
• at my request, Mayor Carlton Stevens arranged an open forum on 11 May 2023 at Reid Street Community Center at which I presented the history of Vick Cemetery and discussed the devastating ground-penetrating radar report identifying at least 4,224 graves there. The mayor and council members Gillettia Morgan and Derrick Creech attended and heard members of the public call for transparency, accountability, and action at Vick. Mayor Stevens remarked: “I cannot undo what was done, but I can tell you this: I will work with Lisa to make it as right as possible.” Stevens proposed forming a commission in which he was the liaison to City Council and I was liaison to the community: “We will work jointly on what can be done in that cemetery to bring honor, respect and dignity to that cemetery.”
• in late May, Council voted to run a fence around Vick and brought New South Associates (NSA) back to the cemetery in late June to mark graves that straddled its borders. Council also ordered a survey of the cemetery’s boundaries, but did not request an accompanying plat map — and refuse to do so.
• in July, City Manager Grant Goings announced that he would make recommendations for Vick at the August council meeting and provided a preview of his suggestions.
• on August 5, local clergy and Lane Street Project held a reconsecration ceremony at Vick Cemetery.
• on August 11, I emailed the four council members who attended the reconsecration ceremony and asked them to move for: (1) formal engagement by the City with Lane Street Project and other representatives of the Vick Cemetery descendant community; (2) an independent investigation into the removal and disposal of Vick Cemetery’s headstones circa 1995; (3) preparation of a full survey map of Vick Cemetery, to include all built features; and (4) a ground-penetrating radar survey of the areas not surveyed in 2022, including, but not limited to, the public right-of-way between the power poles and the street. I also encouraged council members to hold off on making decisions about Vick’s future without additional information about the history and current condition of the site and without the input of stakeholders whose family members are buried there.
• in August, NSA presented its final report on Vick Cemetery at council meeting. Goings did not present recommendations.
• on August 17, WRAL-TV ran an investigative report on Vick Cemetery.
• in late August/early September, evidence established that power poles were placed in Vick and Rountree in 1997 — after the cemetery was cleared.
• at the September council meeting, Lane Street Project representatives presented to council a written statement of concerns and requests concerning Vick.
• in late September, the North Carolina General Assembly approved $50,000 for Vick Cemetery (after a brief “miscommunication.”)
• in late September, at Mayor Stevens’ invitation, I attended a meeting with him, Councilmember Morgan, and two members of the descendant community to discuss next steps for Vick. Despite my generally hopeful takeaway, I have heard nothing from the Mayor since then.
• in October, Vick Cemetery became a pressing issue for candidates for city council races. In defending their records, Morgan, Michael Bell, and James Johnson provided insight into their essential positions. For Morgan, it was basically “Can’t we all just get along?”; for A.M.E. Zion presiding elder Bell — and I quote — it was “Let the dead rest”; and to paraphrase Johnson (who was on council when Vick’s headstones were pulled up), it was “Y’all just don’t understand 25 year-old me — and what do y’all want, anyway?” All were re-elected.
• Vick Cemetery was not on the agendas for the October, November, or December 2023 council meetings. Nor has Vick Cemetery appeared on a 2024 council agenda in 2024.
• in March 2024, WTVD ran its investigative report on Vick Cemetery.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2024.