Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Undocumented African American burials are threatened, and unfortunately sometimes developed and lost, because our nation has failed to recognize these spaces. Living in impoverished conditions, facing legal and financial restrictions from purchasing lands for burial as well as burial markers, African American burial grounds were frequently placed on lands belonging to others and impermenently marked. In the South, the Great Migration led many African Americans to relocate to northern and Midwestern industrial cities, severing the links between social memory and burial spaces. This presentation will include viewing of a video documentary on the Avondale Burial Place in Georgia, followed by a discussion of efforts to create an African American Burial Grounds Network Act in the U.S. Congress to provide descendants with the resources needed to recognize, protect, restore and maintain these lost landmarks of the African American past.
Resources discussed in the video:
SHA Abandoned Burial Grounds Advice: sha.org/resources/abandoned-burial-grounds
Bill Status in the US 116th Congress: congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1179/all-info
Learn more about cemeteries in Utah: history.utah.gov/cemeteries
Undocumented African American burials are threatened, and unfortunately sometimes developed and lost, because our nation has failed to recognize these spaces. Living in impoverished conditions, facing legal and financial restrictions from purchasing lands for burial as well as burial markers, African American burial grounds were frequently placed on lands belonging to others and impermenently marked. In the South, the Great Migration led many African Americans to relocate to northern and Midwestern industrial cities, severing the links between social memory and burial spaces. This presentation will include viewing of a video documentary on the Avondale Burial Place in Georgia, followed by a discussion of efforts to create an African American Burial Grounds Network Act in the U.S. Congress to provide descendants with the resources needed to recognize, protect, restore and maintain these lost landmarks of the African American past.
Resources discussed in the video:
SHA Abandoned Burial Grounds Advice: sha.org/resources/abandoned-burial-grounds
Bill Status in the US 116th Congress: congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1179/all-info
Learn more about cemeteries in Utah: history.utah.gov/cemeteries
