Welcome to the Historic Black Cemeteries of Georgia page! Our mission is to help African American individuals, cemetery organizations, groups, and committees in Georgia get started with historical and genealogical research, implementing permanent memorialization options, or planning memorial events that include local and descendant communities for their local cemeteries. We are creating a community of cemetery awareness, preservation, and commemoration to honor our ancestors. Here you will find a wealth of resources and a community of like-minded people through our Facebook Group. Please reach out if you have any questions or need help.
Pierce Chapel Baptist Church African Burial Ground, Midland, GA.
The story of Black people in America is one of a range of human experience: from freedom, to enslavement, to the continuing fight for full equal rights over the span of 400 years. Black people helped shape the physical and cultural landscape of the United States; however, whole neighborhoods and villages have been virtually erased from the physical environment, often with the only evidence of their existence found in dilapidated buildings or state-protected spaces such as local cemeteries. Cemeteries, specifically historically Black cemeteries, face unique challenges due to irresponsible or neglectful ownership, the dispersal of descendants with personal investment in the area, and the pressures of real estate development. These threats have relegated Black cemeteries to the margins of public awareness and place them in danger of abandonment and erasure.
South Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, GA.
New Macedonia Baptist Church Cemetery, Morven, GA.
“As more destroyed graveyards are found across the country, many Black Americans wonder if there can be a productive future without reverence for the past. They are returning to the buried places, to search for their roots and protect land amid anti-Blackness and the whitewashing of American history.”
Historic Black Cemeteries of Georgia Affiliates:
A national repository of Black cemeteries. Add your cemetery to the collection.
“World’s largest gravesite collection,” with over 238 million community-entered memorials.
Advancing the much needed conversation of cemeteries in the Atlanta area.