African Burial Ground

A Study of Difference, Disappearance and Resistance.

When the Army Corps of Engineers took over the land for the Manhattan Project and created Oak Ridge in 1942, they were mandated to record and preserve cemeteries: AEC #1 - Gallaher Cemetery, AEC #2 - Slave Cemetery, etc. Until 2000 there was no fence or memorial at #2.

For over 10 years I have been visiting, tracing the indentations and fieldstones for the Africans in bondage on one side of the road, the groomed headstones of the enslavers on the other. Wondering at the unseen hands paying respect, moving and disappearing. Reading up on the traditions that the enslaved brought from Africa, randomly placed graves, handmade markers and stones without attempt to control the vegetation. The practice of leaving objects as sanctified testimonies; provisions for the deceaseds’ use in the spirit world, white seashells left as memories of home. The cemetery as one of the few places where African identities could be expressed.

Death is supposed to be the great equalizer. We all return to Mother Earth but some still try to immortalize their glory in stone. The gendered earth makes me think of women, venerated and abused, holy mothers, wet nurses and breeding machines. Through all of this runs the thread of the natural and the artificial, heartfelt or overbearing. And since the 2024 election the faultlines have widened. The cemeteries have become a battleground for what it means to be American. Ignorance and disrespect are having a field day but I enjoy the signs of resistance and resilience that continue to make the African Burial Ground my special place.