Atlanta GA

Lane Street Project: Owl Rock Methodist Church Cemetery.

Though I will always be of Wilson, I have lived in Atlanta for most of my adult life. It is very much “home” for me, too, and is a bottomless well of African-American culture and history that often informs the way I process research and works related to Black Wide-Awake and Lane Street Project.

I’ve recently begun visiting metro Atlanta’s historic African-American burial grounds. How have they weathered exploding population growth, shifting demographics, outmigration, land loss, and other pressures? The third in a series — Owl Rock Cemetery, South Fulton, Fulton County.

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Founded in 1828, Owl Rock Methodist Church stands near the intersection of Campbellton Road and Union Road in southwest Fulton County, an area that saw significant skirmishing during the Civil War’s Battle of Atlanta. The church’s cemetery lies adjacent to the church alongside Union Road and contains two grave markers designating buried African Americans. All were or had been enslaved, but only one is named — Hasseltine Bell.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson.

Lane Street Project: Cobb-Bethel A.M.E. Church Cemetery.

Though I will always be of Wilson, I have lived in Atlanta for most of my adult life. It is very much “home” for me, too, and is a bottomless well of African-American culture and history that often informs the way I process research and works related to Black Wide-Awake and Lane Street Project.

I’ve recently begun visiting metro Atlanta’s historic African-American burial grounds. How have they weathered exploding population growth, shifting demographics, outmigration, land loss, and other pressures? The third in a series — Cobb-Bethel A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County.

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Located up a short slope behind Cobb-Bethel A.M.E. Church on County Line Road, this cemetery shows signs of a recent major clean-up. The older section, up front, is clear, and small red flags indicate a survey. As you push deeper, the ground is stubbled with the stumps of saplings, and even further back, some headstones remain in dense underbrush, but the church’s commitment to the care and reclamation of this burial ground is clear.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2025.

Lane Street Project: Lincoln Cemetery.

Though I will always be of Wilson, I have lived in Atlanta for most of my adult life. It is very much “home” for me, too, and is a bottomless well of African-American culture and history that often informs the way I process research and works related to Black Wide-Awake and Lane Street Project.

I’ve recently begun visiting metro Atlanta’s historic African-American burial grounds. How have they weathered exploding population growth, shifting demographics, outmigration, land loss, and other pressures? The second in a series — Lincoln Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County.

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I spent the morning of July 4 not “celebrating,” but documenting the final resting places of Black Georgians. Open since 1925, Lincoln Cemetery holds more than 75,000 graves — from civil rights notables like Ralph David Abernathy, Hosea Williams, and Dorothy Lee Bolden to everyday folk like those lying beneath the lovely memorials below. The nearly two hundred photographs I took today will be uploaded to findagrave.com, the enormous online database of cemetery records and memorial information. Anyone anywhere in the world looking for a relative can search Findagrave, but they will only find what volunteers contribute.

Most of the markers in the section of Lincoln I walked were modern machine-cut headstones, but a few caught my eye.

Folk artist Eldren Bailey (1903-1987) produced untold thousands of these concrete grave markers for Black funeral homes in and around Atlanta. This simple version retains its whitewash.

Photographs by Lisa Y. Henderson, July 2025.

Lane Street Project: Oakland Cemetery.

Though I will always be of Wilson, I have lived in Atlanta for most of my adult life. It is very much “home” for me, too, and is a bottomless well of African-American culture and history that often informs the way I process research and works related to Black Wide-Awake and Lane Street Project.

I’ve recently begun visiting metro Atlanta’s historic African-American burial grounds. How have they weathered exploding population growth, shifting demographics, outmigration, land loss, and other pressures? The first in a series — Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County.

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I’ve lived in Atlanta more than half my life, but only recently ventured into the city’s storied Oakland Cemetery. The cemetery’s “Black Section,” founded in 1866, covers 3.5 acres and more than 12,000 known burials. (That’s less than half the size of Vick Cemetery, but three times the graves.) The grounds are now the focus of extensive restoration efforts by Historic Oakland Foundation.

In 2021 or ’22, Wilson city council voted to fund interpretive signage at Vick Cemetery, but never moved forward. Signboards like this one would help the community connect history and family to the present seemingly empty field that is Vick.

This audio cell phone tour is fantastic and is on my wildest dream list for Lane Street Project.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2025.

Signal Boost: Volunteer Day with Friends of Piney Grove.

One of the highlights of the symposium I attended last weekend was meeting Audrey Collins and Rhonda Jackson, two sisters at the heart of efforts to reclaim Atlanta’s Piney Grove Cemetery. Now pinned between Highway GA-400 and a Buckhead apartment complex, Piney Grove has roots deep in the 19th century and may contain hundreds of graves. I look forward to sharing Lane Street Project’s highs and lows with Friends of Piney Grove, and bringing ideas from their experiences back to our cemeteries.

I’ll be in North Carolina during Piney Grove’s next volunteer day, but I can surely signal-boost to my Atlanta folks. Celebrate Black History Month with service!

Podcast recommendation, no. 2: Archive Atlanta.

I resisted podcasts for an unreasonably long time, as I better absorb information by reading rather than hearing. A few years ago though, when my father’s illness necessitated more frequent seven-hour drives between Wilson and Atlanta, I got with the times with the help of Victoria Lamos’ Archive Atlanta. (Which is — for my money — the gold standard in local history podcasts.)

A recent episode about Blandtown, a historic African-American community in what is now Atlanta, encapsulated everything there is to love about Archive Atlanta and made me wish I had the time, resources, and know-how to produce a Black Wide-Awake podcast. Maybe in time….

Anyway, nothing to do with Wilson, but I highly recommend this “weekly history podcast about the people, places, and events that shaped the city of Atlanta.” Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.

Lane Street Project: the Gilbert Memorial Cemetery.

As noted here, there is no end to the number of desecrated African-American cemeteries across this country. Ten or so years ago, I posted to my Tumblr account (scuffalong.tumblr.com, if you’re interested) a photo I took in a bizarre “cemetery” not far from where I live in Atlanta, Georgia.

Yesterday, I stumbled on a recent YouTube short that explores Gilbert Memorial a little further. There are echoes of Vick Cemetery in what happened to Gilbert — the themes and trajectories of all these sacred spaces are depressingly familiar.

My thanks to Doug Loggins for sharing Gilbert’s story.