Anna-Catherine Carroll of the Charleston Preservation society helped us kick off our new program year with an interesting look at a new project to record, map and publicize Black burial sites throughout Charleston.
The Preservation Society has been working on the effort to several years but has a new impetus from a African American Civil Rights grant by the National Park Service to launch the “Mapping Charleston’s Black Burial Grounds Initiative.” An African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives with committee hearings but has not made it to either floor for a vote.
The Preservation Society says awareness is the first step toward preserving or at least honoring the burial sites.
Carroll says Black burial sites are ten times more likely to be considered abandoned than White sites.
She called out Fred Lincoln and MaeRe Skinner for their preservation efforts on the Cainhoy Peninsula, particularly involving the controversy over a housing development encroaching on Black burial grounds adjacent to the Old Ruins Cemetery. The two received an appreciative round of applause.
For previous posts with background on that story, click the links below
ANOTHER CEMETERY CONTROVERSY ON THE CAINHOY PENINSULA April 9,2021
Phillips Community and Cainhoy Cemetery stories updated August 2021
Anna-Catherine answered a lot of questions after her presentation but also provided her email if anyone has more questions. You can reach her at ACCARROLL@PRESERVATIONSOCIETY.ORG.
She suggested taking a look at the Preservation Society website and checking out membership options.
If you want to learn more about the cemeteries here on Daniel Island (4 known at this time) we have a lot of information and pictures on this website…. CLICK HERE
You can watch a video of Tuesday night’s program on our Facebook Page or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT6TmG0EA9w
You also have two options to review Anna-Catherine Carroll’s slide presentation….via PowerPoint at https://bit.ly/3BCRheP and as a .pdf at https://bit.ly/3LuV5nb. One slide was removed at her request.