Preservation society to begin mapping Charleston’s Black burial grounds

National Park Service awards $50K grant to fund project
Black burial grounds in the City of Charleston, some lost to the passing of time, will soon get the attention they have long deserved.
 
The Preservation Society of Charleston announced recently it has been awarded a $50,000 African American Civil Rights grant by the National Park Service to launch the “Mapping Charleston’s Black Burial Grounds” initiative. The PSC’s objective is to implement a community-led, open-source mapping project to produce a comprehensive inventory of Black burial grounds within the city. A plan for implementing the federal funding will be developed collaboratively alongside community stakeholders and institutions.
 
While the City of Charleston passed its first cemetery protection ordinance in 2021, there is currently no inventory of burial sites to ensure development is planned to avoid willful and unknowing desecration. The project team will work over the next two years to identify, research, and define the boundaries of burial sites to inform a data layer, which will be integrated into the City’s databases as a planning and preservation tool. 
 
Cainhoy peninsula residents Fred Lincoln and MaeRe Skinner have long voiced support for the preservation of the Old Ruins/McDowell Cemetery, and an adjacent African American burial ground, off Clements Ferry Road near the Oak Bluff subdivision. 
 
“These are sacred grounds that are occupied by a people who sacrificed so much for the betterment of this country,” noted Lincoln in the PSC press release.  
 
The efforts of Lincoln, Skinner and other community advocates to protect cemeteries in the Cainhoy region in the wake of development pressures were a major impetus for the PSC’s proposal. 
 
This work ties into a broader national conversation. The PSC’s aim is to ensure proper care for the resting places of those who built our cities yet were denied equal access to land and financial resources. Charleston now has the opportunity to recognize burial sites as a core part of the landscape of historic places that deserve protection. 
 
In her letter of support for PSC’s grant application, Dr. Tonya M. Matthews, president and CEO of the IAAM, stated, “We share the PSC’s vision to create strategy and structure to engage community such that members of Charleston’s African American communities are not only beneficiaries of this project, but creators and drivers of it.”
 
According to the PSC, “each burial site is a significant place of remembrance that conveys important truths of the American story and the stories of those who built our city. Yet because these sites are underrepresented in traditional historic surveys and, in many cases,
undocumented, they are highly vulnerable to development pressures. Due to recent, unprecedented growth, Charleston is now challenged to recognize and ensure protections for these sites before they are lost.”
 
Jessica Knuff, president of the Daniel Island Historical Society, praised the PSC on their grant award and their planned mapping project.
 
“We cannot understate the significance of this award and extend a heartfelt congratulations to the Preservation Society of Charleston on this momentous achievement,” Knuff stated. “We look forward to the important work that will be done to document and study these sacred burial grounds – not only on the Cainhoy peninsula, but all across the Charleston region. Those laid to rest in these hallowed places are worthy of our attention and our respect. May this critical work shine a spotlight on their final resting places, many of them long forgotten and hidden, and give them the protection they so rightly deserve.”
 
Following the loss of Dr. Ade Ofunniyin, a leading voice in recognizing the immense cultural significance of Charleston’s Black burial sites, the PSC sees this work as a continuation of his important legacy in the Lowcountry.  A grandson of the late Master Blacksmith Philip Simmons, Ofunniyin was laid to rest in his ancestral burial ground, Grove Cemetery on Daniel Island, in 2020. 
 
- Compiled by Elizabeth Bush

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

Breaking News Alerts

To sign up for breaking news email alerts, Click on the email address below and put "email alerts" in the subject line: sdetar@thedanielislandnews.com

Comment Here