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Virginia Legislators Work To Expand Preservation of African American Cemeteries

Caitlin Morris | March 14, 2019

Topics: African American Burial Grounds Network Act, African American cemeteries, Donald McEachin, East End Cemetery, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Virginia cemeteries

Neglected for decades, historic African-American cemeteries in Virginia are the focus of renewed restoration efforts, both on the state and federal levels.

“Fifteen-hundred tires, and counting,” said Brian Palmer, referring to the illegally dumped trash in Richmond’s East End Cemetery.

Palmer, a member of the Friends of East End Cemetery, is part of the restoration and reclamation effort at the once abandoned historic African American cemetery.

“In addition to pulling out privet and Virginia creeper and briars and poison ivy, we will unearth headstones — grave-markers that have been buried for a long period of time,” Palmer said.

After reclaiming the land by disposing of trash and pulling back vines that have entangled the grave sites, volunteers work to reclaim local history by identifying those buried in East End. Headstones are carefully cleaned and photographed, and added to online databases like Find A Grave and the newly organized East End Cemetery website.

During Virginia’s 2019 General Assembly session, 19 historic African American cemeteries were made eligible for state funding from the Department for Historic Resources. The fight for cemetery preservation through state funds began in 2017 with East End and the nearby Evergreen Cemetery, but each year since, Virginia has made more cemeteries eligible for funding that would provide maintenance and upkeep. This year, the Tucker Family Cemetery in Hampton was added to the list. Some believe that the Tucker Family Cemetery is the final resting place of the first child born to Africans in America, William Tucker.

Virginia Congressman Donald McEachin is looking beyond the Commonwealth for a way to preserve African American cemeteries on a national level. Speaking at Richmond’s Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia on February 23, McEachin and community members marked the introduction of a national act.

“For far too long, African American burial grounds have been abused and neglected,” McEachin said.

McEachin introduced the African American Burial Grounds Network Act to the House of Representatives on February 13. The act is also sponsored by North Carolina Congresswoman Alma S. Adams.

The act would create a national network of historic African American burial grounds to be overseen by the National Park Service. The database would be composed voluntarily, with permission needed from owners in cases where cemeteries are found on private property. Grants would be made available to aid local groups in identifying, researching, and preserving sites within the network.

“(African American Cemeteries) frequently fail to receive the same sort of state and local monetary support or assistance as predominantly white cemeteries,” McEachin said. “As a result, African American burial grounds are in a state of disrepair or inaccessibility. We’ve seen this across the country as well as in our own backyard.”

The National Parks Service currently oversees the National Register of Historic Places, which includes 48 Virginia cemeteries. While some exclusively African American cemeteries have made the list, many are segregated, with only small sections for African Americans, like Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper and East Hill in Bristol.

“Beginning with slavery and continuing well through the era of Jim Crow, African Americans were restricted from where they could bury their deceased,” McEachin said.

Mario Chiodo’s The Path of Thorns and Roses at Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery, By Awal115, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia

During the Civil War, soldiers of the United States Colored Troops of the Union Army were buried at the Contrabands and Freedman Cemetery in Alexandria. Surviving African American soldiers were outraged and demanded the burials be moved to Soldier’s Cemetery to lie with the other, white, troops. Soldier’s Cemetery is what we now call Alexandria National Cemetery, a historic veterans’ burial ground.

African American refugees from the South continued to use the Contrabands and Freedman Cemetery until 1869. After 1939, the cemetery could no longer be found on maps. In the ‘50s, a gas station was built on the site. It wasn’t until 1987 that the cemetery was rediscovered through newspaper articles from the 1860s. The site is now a memorial to the freed people of color who lived in Alexandria.

“These cemeteries, and the stories they tell, are vital to the people who have ancestors buried in them, to the communities they built, and to our shared history as Americans,” said Brett Glymph, the Executive Director of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.

Photos (unless otherwise noted) by Brian Palmer and Erin Holloway Palmer, via 1708 Gallery

City to unveil Maggie Walker monument this Saturday

Jo Rozycki | July 12, 2017

Topics: Antonio Tobias "Toby" Mendez, Bistro 27, Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Jackson Ward, Levar Stoney, Maggie L. Walker, Max's on Broad, National Park Service, Public Arts Comission, RVA ARt, RVA Trolley, Studio Two Three, The Valentine, Untold RVA, Venture Richmond, Virginia Repertory Theatre

Maggie L. Walker, the first female bank president of any race to charter a bank in the United States, is getting her long-deserved recognition with her very own statue in Richmond. An unveiling ceremony and celebration for the highly debated monument will occur on Walker’s 153rd birthday, Saturday, July 15, at 10 am, at the intersection of West Broad and Adams streets, the entrance of historic Jackson Ward.

Artist Antonio Tobias “Toby” Mendez, Mayor Levar Stoney, city officials, members of the Walker family, and more attend the ceremony. Walking tours of Jackson Ward by the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, led by Leadership Academy students, will begin at 11am from the statue, followed by a reception at the house.

Photo credit: National Park Service

After the unveiling, attendees are encouraged to make a day around the neighborhood. Free trolley rides will be provided by Venture Richmond from RVA Trolley from Leigh to Belvidere to Marshall to 10th for the event. Many local business are participating in the event, offering giveaways, discounts, and more.

Studio Two Three will have the S23 truck on site with giveaways. The Valentine will offer free admission to those who show an event program. The Black History Museum & Cultural Center will offer cookies and special Maggie L. Walker displays. Max’s on Broad will open early at 8am for the event. Bistro 27 will offer 10 percent off that day to those attending the event, and will be open for brunch starting at 10:30am and dinner at 5pm.

Attendees are also encouraged to stop by Virginia Repertory Theatre to learn about the Walker Theatre, the first purpose built cinema in the area and the first public tribute to Maggie L. Walker in 1936.

To learn more about Walker’s accomplishments, call the number listed on any of Untold RVA installations located between Adams and 2nd which will be up for the unveiling.

The unveiling ceremony and following activities will occur rain or shine. 

Broad st. Maggie Walker statue set to be unveiled in July on banker’s 153rd birthday

Brad Kutner | June 13, 2017

Topics: Maggie Walker, National Park Service, Statues in Richmond, Toby Mendez

The famed bank owner and Richmond citizen Maggie Walker is set to be immortalized along Broad Street at a grand unveiling next month, but the road to now was once fraught with surprising controversy.

“This effort has been nearly 20 years in the making and it is an honor to finally see it happen during my time in office,” said Mayor Levar Stoney in a press release sent out today. “Maggie Walker is an inspiration to women, African Americans and entrepreneurs alike.”

While most of Richmond agreed on the need to honor Walker who famously was the first female bank president of any race to charter a bank in the United States, the location of the monument proved to be a sticking point for some involved.

The future pedestal for the statue, an island park at Broad and Adams along RVA’s Jackson Ward neighborhood, was once home to an (evidently) beloved and long standing tree.

A petition was started to spare the tree, claiming the city should find a way to honor Walker without damaging the flora already in place.

“The grandeur of the Maggie Walker statue will be forever tainted by the senseless killing of this rare and giving tree,” read the petition which garnered about 1400 signatures. “Miss Walker, one of Richmond’s most devoted stewards of life, would surely not have endorsed this shameful act in her memory.”

But at a public meeting held at the Richmond Public Library last January a survey of the 200 or so people in attendance found less than 35% of the crowd saw the tree as important enough to alter design plans. But the sculptor commissioned to do the work, Toby Mendez, said he could accommodate either side’s concerns.

“Tree, no tree–that’s really up to you guys. I can design either way, I think either way will be successful,” said Mendez. “If the tree goes away we’re still going to have to have some small trees on the site. I think whether we design this with or without the tree the first thing people are going to look at is Maggie Walker, I’ll make sure of that.”

Sure enough, the tree has since been removed, the sliver of Brooke Rd. in front of Max’s on Broad has been paved over into public park,  and the statue of Ms. Walker is set to be unveiled Saturday, July 15, 2017, the entrepreneur’s 153rd birthday. The National Park service will offer a walking tour of Jackson War, Walker’s home neighborhood, following the unveiling.

Top photo via Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

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