I love strolling through cemeteries – the older and more overgrown, the better, of course. I’m not particularly ghoulish, though. I just enjoy the underlying history that cemeteries provide. Some of that history is relayed in tomb stones and monuments. Often, however, the history is contained beneath more subtle contexts: the layout of the stones, the level of ruin within the cemetery, the innocuous placing of a fence…
The Red River Valley of the South still contains the remnants of segregation inside many of its cemeteries. Because even in death, the powers that be insisted that races had to remain separated.
In the pre-Civil War period, segregated burial places were not needed, as blacks, most of whom were enslaved, were either buried without so much as a tomb stone, or were interred amongst their traffickers. There were some designated “slave cemeteries” in a few select locations, such as near large plantations or in the cities , but most of these burial places are no longer visible, as time, neglect, and outright disrespect have taken their tolls on them.
The few free people of color often confined their cemeteries within their church yards, such as St. Augustine Church near Natchitoches, Louisiana.
History is lost this way. Of course, that may have been by design, where racism was built into the system, including the systems that buried the dead.
Yet, especially in smaller communities, the “Negro Cemeteries” are still extant and active. Black cemeteries are extremely interesting to me, as their very existence lends an aura of defiance against the southern U.S. social structures. Though the tombs may not be as elaborate as those designed for affluent whites, black graves are just as loud – they serve as the final and eternal stamp on the world, indicating that the person buried there mattered as much as any other man or woman.
I plan on visiting and documenting many more black cemeteries. The southern, segregated graveyard is a fascinating aspect of history that tells a lot about not only the people interred there, but about the community in which they’re buried.
