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Cemeteries established by Black Americans provide snapshots into community history. They are dignified settings. But in the effort to preserve these burial grounds, descendants are often ignored. VPM News reporter Jahd Khalil takes us to Richmond, Va., where city officials are engaging with family instead.
JAHD KHALIL, BYLINE: Last summer, Loretta Tillman walked through East End Cemetery looking for her aunt.
LORETTA TILLMAN: Where are you, madam? Peighton, if you see a Johnson somewhere...
KHALIL: She made her way through overgrown brush with her cane. She paid special attention to her footing.
TILLMAN: My mother did not want to be buried out here, and I see now exactly why.
KHALIL: The burial grounds' neglect pushed descendants like Tillman to fight for stable ownership. In May, the city of Richmond took possession of the historic Black cemeteries. That meant that burial grounds' histories were entering a new chapter.
Since East End and Evergreen Cemetery next door were founded in the 1890s, about 65,000 people were laid to rest between the two. Among them are Rosa Bowser, Richmond's first Black teacher and financial tycoon Maggie Walker.
But beginning in the '50s, the cemeteries were targets of vandalism and dumping. Declining burials meant fewer funds for upkeep. The cemetery companies collapsed, and care was left to volunteers.
BRENT LEGGS: These sacred places matter and are worthy of cultural preservation.
KHALIL: Brent Leggs runs the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. It provides preservation grants for Black historic sites. He calls cemeteries landscapes of memory and education.
LEGGS: They often showcase unique burial practices, and gravestone designs have historically significant architecture and are the resting place for individuals whose role in our national history has often been marginalized and overlooked.
KHALIL: Leggs says, most often, he sees a lack of investment and engagement from local government.
LEGGS: And oftentimes, local preservation organizations are advocating to be able to secure critical resources for just mowing the grass or having greater cameras and things to mitigate some of the on-site desecration and vandalism.
KHALIL: And for the federal government, he says a good start would be putting money behind already-made commitments. Congress passed the African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Act in December 2022. It established a $3 million program for cemeteries like these, but it's never been funded.
In Richmond, planners and descendants don't really know how much it will cost to restore the cemeteries. But this year, the budget has about $700,000 specifically for the effort. Chris Frelke oversees the city park system, which includes cemeteries.
CHRIS FRELKE: This is not something you want to come in and do in six months or a year or two years.
KHALIL: Lawnmowers and weedwackers could damage historic headstones. Construction could unearth remains.
FRELKE: You've got to really understand what you're doing and build on that momentum.
KHALIL: He's been working with descendants on restoration work for months, which he says isn't a common approach.
FRELKE: It's usually one agency or a nonprofit that's doing it, and they're not taking this collaborative approach. We were very fortunate in the fact that we had a very strong descendants group.
KHALIL: City officials meet with descendants regularly. They talk about maintenance and legal issues and are from different ages and racial backgrounds. Tillman is 64, and the spokesperson for the group is 30, but they've been involved since they were 25. Maurice Hopkins is 77. His boyhood friend is buried at Evergreen.
MAURICE HOPKINS: These are very passionate spaces.
KHALIL: He said he's worried the city won't have the staffing or money to properly care for the grounds. For now, the city is generally responsive to removing things like couches or toilets dumped at the cemeteries. Hopkins says what's most important to him is input into the public's future relationship with the sites.
HOPKINS: These cemeteries are not recreation plantations, and they have to be treated with respect, dignity and honor.
KHALIL: And for now, they have a seat at the table.
For NPR News, I'm Jahd Khalil in Richmond, Va.
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