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The first SOAL Restoration in July 2021 at Harrisburg Lincoln Cemetery. No matter what else you do--you can show up to reclaim Black History. It makes you feel good.
In July 2021 SOAL started reclaiming our ancestors.

We Need Your Help at Lincoln Cemetery Volunteer Restoration Weekends!

Come join our 100% Volunteer-Driven operated restoration of Harrisburg’s Oldest Black Cemetery!
We will be recovering sunken gravestones, removing litter, trimming trees, planting flowers, cleaning headstones, resetting gravestones, and a lot more!
You can help onsite with restoration work… Or you can provide a meal, work the grill, contribute lawn care equipment, share a bit of local/family history…
Everyone is needed!

Lincoln Cemetery Restoration Weekends are held:
* the 3rd Friday of every month
* Spring to Fall
* Friday to Sunday
* Noon to Dusk.

And..Everyone is welcome to join us in saving our ancestors’ legacy!

Register For 2024 SOAL Historic Preservation Events

SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 Nonprofit

EIN# 87-4185990

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Black Cemetery Restoration at Lincoln Cemetery

SOAL has been “Uncovering Gravestones Uncovering History“! Learn more about what SavingOurAncestorsLegacy Volunteers achieved in their first year restoring Harrisburg’s oldest African American Burial Ground: Lincoln Cemetery!

SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 nonprofit that has been restoring Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg, since 2021. Lincoln Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Grounds.
This is a grassroots VOLUNTEER Descendant-Community Led Effort. We appreciate your support immensely.
"We are a people. A people do not throw their geniuses away"...SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 nonprofit that has been restoring Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg, since 2021. Lincoln Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Grounds.
Learn how we get started

Uncovering Black History at Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg

Lincoln Cemetery is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Ground. This is a photo of the wrought-iron front gate at the historic graveyard located at 201 South 30th street in Penbrook, PA. The top of the gate reads "Lincoln Cemetery 1827."
Lincoln Cemetery Front Gate May 2022

Jim Crow’s Graveyard in South-central Pennsylvania

It is time to tell the true history of Harrisburg’s Oldest Black Cemetery. Lincoln Cemetery was not founded in 1816, 1817, or 1927, as written iron on the cemetery’s front gates…The grounds of Lincoln Cemetery were consecrated, outside of the city limits, in November of 1877 on a plot of land that lies on the border of what is now the Town of Penbrook and Susquehanna Township in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania.

Read Our Ancestor Stories
Historic newspaper notice regarding the removal of bodies from the Wesleyan Union Zion Graveyard (Colored) on Herr street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The African American cemeteries located in the city of Harrisburg were disinterred and reinterred in Lincoln Cemetery in Penbrook. SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 nonprofit that has been restoring Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg, since 2021. Lincoln Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Grounds.
Notice to Persons Having Relatives and Friends Buried in the Methodist Cemetery and Wesleyan Union Zion Grave Yard.
SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy 2023 Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg Volunteer Restoration Weekends Event Registration and calendar. SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 nonprofit that has been restoring Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg, since 2021. Lincoln Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Grounds.

SavingOurAncestorsLegacy Facebook Events Page

Register on Eventbrite

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Shop for SOAL swag. Support our historic cemetery restoration work, support <a href=
From Left to Right: Tafari Wilson, Rachael Williams, and Bhakti Williams-Brown model their SOAL Swag at the 2022 Lincoln Cemetery Restoration Weekend
Wear Your Support for Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy On Your Sleeve

100% of the $$$ we generate through your purchase goes Directly into the restoration of Lincoln Cemetery!

Purchase SOALswag & come to our next Lincoln Cemetery Restoration Event in style

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Find Your People–Support Your Tribe
SOAL has been doing genealogical research on Harrisburg's Black families since 2021. We are saving our ancestors' legacies.
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We are a people. A people do not throw their geniuses away. And if they are thrown away, it is our duty as artists and as witnesses for the future to collect them again for the sake of our children, and, if necessary, bone by bone.

Alice Walker
In light of recent actions to remove and restrict access to key historical resources, SOAL Action 4 Heritage 2025 brings together a community of preservationists, historians, genealogists, activists, and all those passionate about safeguarding our shared history. Over three days, we will work together to identify threats, strategize solutions, and mobilize to protect the stories and legacies of our ancestors. Our future is dependent on our understanding of our history. Right now, marginalized histories are at risk of being erased. As we approach the 2025 inauguration, archives on civil rights, slavery, and countless legacies are being removed from public access. SOAL Action 4 Heritage 2025 is a three-day online event uniting programmers, data security experts, historians, genealogists, and community organizers to build a plan to protect these stories before it’s too late. Join us Nov 15-17. Register now—it’s free, online, and open to everyone. This is more than a meeting; it’s a movement to protect the truth of our past for the strength of our future. Focus all efforts on building the networks & download, backup, send to cloud, print out multiple copies 😳 —I know— but this is survival y’all Freedom is slippery— the road has been well laid less traveled & remains slippery & slick with disuse. Still the road is there we are here & the love is real https://www.instagram.com/reel/DB42S31viKj/ Black Deathways: Funeral & Burial traditions are essential to our understanding of our communities! 🥰 Today, we're journeying back to 1886, to reflect on how one meteorite that crashed in Harrisburg can carry such profound meaning, bridge time, culture, & eternal curiosity that unites us all. Unpaid since 2021: Every dollar raised goes into protecting the Archives that SOAL is restoring— archives that reveal intricate links connecting Harrisburg to Buffalo, Hawaii, Mexico, Perú Liberia, England, and elsewhere. Our work is about more than cemetery restoration. It’s about finding and preserving our shared roots and ensuring that Black history is no longer buried or forgotten. The physical and digital archives we’re restoring tell stories connecting generations, across places and continents, illuminating the people’s history. This week Rachael Keri Williams confirmed another Civil War Veteran in the United States Colored Troops through diligent research. Follow as SOAL continues restoring public history. William J. Adore was a Black entrepreneur, restaurateur, Bar owner, hotel proprietor, & Civil War Veteran— it took me 2 years to confirm that he is buried in Harrisburg's oldest Black cemetery! Along with his wife, Elizabeth, and at least on of their children—Caroline Adore d. October 26, 1875 at the age of 2. #SavingOurAncestorsLegacy #radicalhistoryreclamation

Tell Us What You Think About The Lincoln Cemetery Restoration

Help us raise money and build support for our restoration of Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery–Share how SOAL’s work has made your world richer!

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Lincoln Cemetery Collage of Ancestors and Grave Markers