Members of Charlottesville’s volunteer Historic Resources Committee were approached out of concern for protecting the Daughters of Zion Cemtery from falling further into disrepair. Liz Sargent, FASLA and Historic Landscape Architect happened to sit on the committee and developed an interest in the project. After meeting with the Preservers, Sargent learned the Charlottesville City Council would be willing to fund preservation and repair projects if presented with a master plan and cost estimate for the cemetery. Consequently, Sargent drafted the Daughters of Zion Cemetery Preservation Strategies Plan, resulting in the allocation of $80,000 from the City Council to complete the initiatives proposed in the preservation plan. The funds were allocated to a variety of projects, including: repairing damaged headstones; adding fence lines to define property boundaries; erosion control measures; consulting local preservation specialists to determine appropriate repairs for cracked and broken headstones; conducting a 2016 GPR survey; and designing a memorial to those buried in unmarked gravesites, among other initiatives.  

In 2017, the Preservers collaborated with the University of Virginia’s History Department, allowing students to research the history of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery as part of a semester-long project. This culminated in an exhibit entitled Gone but Not Forgotten, featuring artifacts from the University’s Special Collections Library and photographs from the Holsinger Portrait Project (an African American storytelling initiative). The exhibit raised awareness about the existence and restoration of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery, allowing for it to serve as a precedent for other historic African American burial grounds that are also in need of preservation and restoration. 

Within a few short years, the Preservers, along with several other dedicated volunteers, have accomplished nearly all their restoration goals. Their work and creative advocacy strategies suggest a model for other grassroots preservation efforts on raising the awareness, funds, and interest necessary to achieve a vision or set of goals. The problems and situations they’ve encountered and the strategies they’re employed closely mirror those common to African American cemetery restoration; thus, the lesson derived from this case are particularly applicable to Brooklyn Cemetery in Athens, and to other burial grounds throughout the United States. 

• Celebrating the installation and the implementation of master plan designs is a good way to continue fundraising while garnering community support. This includes breaking ground and the final installation of memorials, interpretive materials, and the repairing of existing features.

• Lobbying City Council and presenting them with a strategic plan with cost estimates can lead to financial support for historic preservation from local government entities. 

For more information visit:

• https://thefield.asla.org/2021/05/20/daughters-of-zion-cemetery-grassroots-preservation-how-to/   

• https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/va2281/ 

• https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679405  

Implementation has not begun at the District Hill Cemetery at this time, but is expected to begin sometime in 2022. The Master Plan was well-received and the community, namely the primary stakeholders, are excited to begin installation of the design.   

• Possession of a master plan may simultaneously serve as a design guide and concept to rally behind for fundraising and community engagement   

For more information:

• https://www.asla.org/2018studentawards/493946-District_Hill_Cemetery.html  

• https://issuu.com/districthillcemetery/docs/district_hill_cemetery_issuu  

• https://wdef.com/2021/06/10/district-hill-cemetery-chickamauga-restored/  

Since 2013, volunteers have worked weekly to clear undergrowth, collect trash, uncover grave markers, and document the cemetery’s history. In 2017, Friends of East End Cemetery, a nonprofit organization, was founded to focus and expand the work of the core group of volunteers committed to the restoration effort. Today, the Friends continue to collaborate with descendants of the interred as well as churches, schools, institutions of higher education, local government, businesses, and others.  

To date, Friends of East End have hosted hundreds of workdays organized with more than 10,000 volunteer visits. Over the past eight years, these volunteers have reclaimed almost 10 acres by hand, uncovered more than 3300 grave markers, and found almost as many unmarked graves. All trash, including the 1,500 tires, has been removed. Volunteers have also been digitizing existing grave marker information and posting it to the onlone database Find a Grave as well as creating virtual tombstones for interments for whom records are available but whose physical markers have not been found. The Friends have also been working with University of Richmond to create digital map of all marked graves.  

The group has also invested a great deal of time and effort in developing their official website, where they maintain their own database of interments as well as a record of the cemetery’s history and transformation. Further, the group has collaborated with historians and other researchers at the University of Richmond to put cemetery’s decline and renewal into historic context in order to draw attention to the larger systemic forces that have contributed to the neglect of Black sacred space nationwide.

In Virginia, this kind localized, direct community activism has inspired legislative change. The efforts of Friends of the East End’s core volunteer group spurred that passage of a 2018 Virginia law introduced by Virginia Representative A. Donald McEachin promoting investment in the preservation of historic Black cemeteries. This law would later inspire the proposed African American Burial Grounds Network Act, also introduced by Meachin, which would create a network of Black cemeteries and a formal database of historic Black burial sites—including grant funding for research and restoration—under the administration of the National Park Service. Currently, the legislation has yet to be introduced to the Senate and remains under consideration by the House of Representatives. Follow this link to track the Act’s current status.

In the absence of an official database, it is impossible to know how many neglected Black cemeteries like East End dot the American landscape. Legislation like the African American Burial Grounds Network Act  Support from the Park Service could not only increase visitation at these sites but could also lead to a more complete public understanding of Black history. “African-American history is American history,” says Meachin. “The people that were honored, and how they were honored, speaks to the community they lived in and the times in which they lived.” 

Though promising, the material benefits of such legislation remain to be seen. Brian Palmer, a founding member of Friends of East End, has voiced his disappointment with Meachin’s 2018 Virginia law. Concerned that burial grounds will be converted to “a recreational amenity,” Palmer argues that funding should be directed toward organizations like his that have cultivated local expertise through decades-long stewardship efforts.  

“Any federal legislation with teeth is wonderful,” says Palmer. “But symbolism doesn’t protect cemeteries. It has to be substantive.” Timing is a critical factor when preserving these sites, and until the federal government assumes a more direct role in the stewardship and contextualization of Black sacred spaces, it will remain up to communities to keep the effects of unchecked development and neglect at bay. 

• Advocacy and organized political action are critical. Advocacy at the local level can lead to legislative change at the state and national level.  

• Until the federal government takes more direct ownership of the issue, communities will continue to act as the primary stewards of cemeteries like the East End. As such, their local expertise should be prioritized.  

• There is a correlation between Brian Palmer’s concern that East End would be turned into a “recreational amenity,” and the Trustees of Brooklyn Cemetery’s resistance to the idea of TSPLOST funding.  

• Substance needs to be emphasized over symbolism. Symbolism is powerful, but not enough to enact meaningful material change. 

• Government interventions should be regarded with caution. Further, the material impact of legislative change should be similarly scrutinized. It is entirely possible that well-meaning public sector interventions could, in effect, divert resources away from the initiatives of local experts and derail their goals.  

• The efforts of groups like Friends of the East End should be recognized as tried and true exemplars of the principle of stewardship. Further, designers should critically examine the ways in which the landscape architectural profession has appropriated this principle to opportunistically align itself with established interests in the climate and environmental movements, attract clientele, and vouch for its own recognition as a distinct discipline.  

• Designers must further ask themselves what essential services they can offer to support initiatives like the East End and Brooklyn Cemetery restorations, as well as how they may remain involved beyond the lifespan of individual projects.

For more information visit:

• https://eastendcemeteryrva.com/  

• https://friendsofeastend.com/ 

• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/historic-black-cemeteries-at-risk-can-they-be-preserved 

• https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB284#:~:text=The%20bill%20requires%20that%20the,for%20cemetery%20care%20and%20maintenance. 

• https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1179/text 

A memorial, interpretive center, and research library were later added to the site to commemorate the interred Africans and honor their contributions to colonial New York.  After signing a public law barring the GSA from undertaking the construction of a pavilion that had originally been planned for the site, President George H. W. Bush approved an appropriation of $3 million to fund the design and construction of the memorial in 1992.  

In 1998 the GSA issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the design and construction of the new memorial. Hundreds of applicants submitted proposals. This influx was gradually narrowed to six finalists, of whom only one – Rodney Leon and AARIS Architects – was awarded the final contract.  Rodney’s resulting “Ancestral Chamber” was completed in 2007 and today continues to "serve to physically, spiritually, ritualistically and psychologically define the location where the historic re-interment of remains and artifacts of 419 Africans has taken place," in his own words. 

The design intent behind the African Burial Ground Memorial is worth considering in greater detail. Leon’s design for the memorial was built around seven essential elements. These elements are as follows:  

The conflicts and negotiations that ensued between the General Services Administration, African American descendants, historians, archaeologists, community activists, and city and state officials over the memorialization and proper treatment of these remains effectively exemplifies the current struggle of African Americans to maintain and, where necessary, reclaim sacred ground in the United States.  Further, the complex, often fraught relationships among the stakeholders involved highlighted the entanglement of authorized heritage discourse and historical scholarship, “due diligence” archaeology and institutional power, as well as conflicting understandings of the site’s value between academics, government officials and descendant communities.  

Ardent civic engagement on the part of community activists representing the descendants of those interred spearheaded the standards for commemoration and scientific study of the remains. Through their efforts, these activists were able to negotiate the reinterment of the remains on-site following their examination by anthropologists and archaeologists. Further, they ensured that the spirituality and sacrality central to the burial ground’s meaning to living descendants was recognized and maintained throughout the research and memorialization process.  

In large part due to these community-led efforts, the African Burial Ground was declared a National Monument by President George W. Bush in 2006. 

• There is a direct correlation to be drawn between the struggle of African descendants to reclaim sacred space within the institutional context of the GSA, and the struggle of Black Athenians to restore dignity to the African remains uncovered during the Baldwin Hall expansion.  

• The thoughtful design elements and symbolism of the African Burial Ground National Monument provide a suitable exemplar for a memorial commemorating the unmarked and unknown graves found in Brooklyn Cemetery, as well as honoring the burials uncovered below Baldwin Hall.  

• Designers should set aside their personal beliefs and honor the spiritual significance of places like Brooklyn Cemetery to its stakeholders. In an increasingly secular society, Christian beliefs are often regarded with skepticism, if not outright disdain. No matter their spiritual orientation, designers must avoid this pitfall, as much of the stewardship of African American cemeteries are led by churches and other faith-centered organizations. The situation is no different at Brooklyn Cemetery.  

• Likewise, symbols such as Sankofa should be carefully considered and employed only where they suit the design situation and context. The rich symbolism of Leon’s design may certainly inspire design interventions for Brooklyn Cemetery, but it should not be employed in cookie-cutter fashion without regard to context.