EQUITY FOR THE ANCESTORS: AFRICAN AMERICAN CEMETERIES IN SOUTHERN URBAN SPACES AND THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

Abstract

For much of our nation’s history, local governments in the United States strove to keep White and Black people separate from one another and, in many ways, to oppress African Americans in order to preserve the economically and politically dominant White culture. Officials in many cities historically treated Black cemeteries poorly or maliciously, or erased burial grounds by relocating individual graves into a mass grave elsewhere or simply removing grave markers and paving or developing over the site. Today, city officials may still give lower priority to African American cemeteries as local governments struggle to pay for the upkeep of all historic burial grounds that have long since stopped generating income. Such lack of attention extends to scholarly literature in history, archaeology, material culture, and folklore studies, which have largely included only brief mentions of African American culture and burial customs within larger examinations in which White cemetery history and symbology are treated as the default. Studies of Black funereal traditions have been generally limited to the nineteenth century and, especially, the antebellum period, with an emphasis on the potential West African genesis of burial practices documented within the Southern United States. This investigation—through both primary historical/archival research, a close reading of secondary sources, and contemporary data collection methods—seeks to address this gap. It first considers the various ways in which cities came to be in charge of African American cemeteries, and how typical conditions in city-owned African American cemeteries may affect whether those sites are perceived as historic. It next argues that listing in the National Register of Historic Places plays an important role in either facilitating or hindering the recognition of historic cemeteries, which is directly related to funding for physical improvements. Moreover, I assert that the National Register is designed to limit the listing of Black cemeteries. Finally, the dissertation considers approaches to equitable treatment for city-owned African American cemeteries and provides a case study for one city that is attempting to repair past harms. This investigation is particularly timely due to the enactment by the U.S. Congress in December 2022 of the African American Burial Ground Preservation Act and the subsequent implications for cemeteries that might receive grant funds through the National Park Service. Questions of integrity and eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places are immediately pertinent to the preservation and possible restoration of city-owned African American cemeteries, because current assessment guidelines may present institutional barriers that impede efforts to manage, maintain, and improve these cemeteries in an equitable way.