60 Minutes Investigates Paved-Over Black Cemeteries in Clearwater, Florida… But, They’re Everywhere On Nov 28, 2022, 60 Minutes aired the ongoing investigations and community conversations around the destruction of an entire city’s black cemeteries. As you may know, the practice of paved-over Black Cemeteries by all levels of government across the United … Continue reading →
Rachael & Bhakti visiting their ancestors’ home, and Underground Railroad site, on Yellow Hill in Adams County, before their visit to Lincoln Cemetery in Harrisburg. (Edward Mathews and Francis Gantt purchased 17 acres for their family, a church, and a cemetery in the early 1840s…Only the house, barn, & pond remain visible).
Continue reading →When your teen team accidentally found out they they are a part of an independent campaign for historic trades. Some images from our upcoming SOAL 2022 Recap!
Continue reading →instead of finding hope they found human remains & Dug-Up Graves June 24, 20211: Rachael Keri Williams and Bhakti Williams-Brown traveled to South-Central Pennsylvania in search of their roots and to reclaim their heritage. Instead of find their ancestors, instead of finding hope they found human remains in Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery. Lincoln … Continue reading →
The Voice of Black Women Civil War Activists When Jane Welcome wrote to President Lincoln on November 21, 1864 both of her sons were serving in the United States Colored Troops. She had received no word or money from her youngest son, Israel, who was serving with the 55th Mass, and had … Continue reading →
Buried in Lincoln Cemetery–A Black WWI Vet Who Died in Barre, Vermont James Young was a Black Man who lived much of his life in Harrisburg…But when I initially searched for him I couldn’t even find a death certificate… He died in 1933, but I had little information to go on (without … Continue reading →
Israel Mullin was born between 1814-1820 in Pennsylvania. He married Jane’s daughter Mary Fisher Welcome, owned his own property and land, and built a family with Mary before he joined in the Civil War. He enlisted in Co A of the 43rd USCT on the 9th of March 1864 in Philadelphia. At … Continue reading →
In 1907 R. H. Haywood was walking behind the “Old Negro Cemetery” in Harrisburg when he found a trunk lying in small creek. The Star-Independent Sep 2, 1907.
Continue reading →Driven on the Bypass? Arsenal Blvd? N. 17th St.?
Are you driving on Black Bodies buried below the pavement, under the PennDOT building and parking lot?
Radical History Reclamation Demo: Black Family History Needs Light Everyday I learn a little more about all of the things we can’t see without light… This is especially true when it comes to history. Everything that has been shut away in forgotten drawers, missed in dismal attic corners, and especially those things … Continue reading →
Black Family History Gems: 1961 Photos of William Penn Scholarship Recipients Black Family History Gems: Earlier today, I was searching for news about a Harrisburg, PA native who went on to Bennett College, I found this awesome article in the High Point Enterprise (published in Greensboro, NC), it lists 21 William Penn … Continue reading →
Maggie Brooks or Maggie Pue? Kidnapped from Nashville or Toledo? Enslaved in Cuba or Enslaved in Haiti? Black Woman or Black Girl? Artist or Con-artist? Was Maggie fabricated by White press?
Continue reading →Seemingly art frees an enslaved girl, who was kidnapped, abused, and tortured for 14 years in Cuba. In 1880, she is finally home, searching for her parents in Toledo.
Continue reading →First Professional Black Artist in Pacific Northwest is from Harrisburg, PA: trailblazing 19th Century Black Artist Grafton Tyler Brown: cartographer, craftsman, communicator, documentarian, entrepreneur, and pioneer.
Continue reading →Hummelstown Brownstone: South Central PA Brownstone If you’ve ever wondered why there is so much Brownstone at Lincoln Cemetery…. Here is the beginning of an explanation–the Hummelstown Brownstone Company. You can find a completely thorough review of the history of the Hummelstown Brownstown Company by visiting this excellent site created by Peggy … Continue reading →
Gaming Engine Preserves Black Cemetery How To: Preserve a Black Cemetery with a Gaming Engine In Fall 2022, SOAL will be partnering with Messiah University and Harrisburg University to use photogrammetry to create a 3D storymap of Harrisburg’s Oldest Extant Historically Black Cemetery: Lincoln Cemetery! By combining the use of drones to … Continue reading →
Family Historian Flays Sisters as Journalist Watches deeply disturbing article published by The Guardian, on Sunday, September 4th… Their names were Annie, Agnes and Margaret McWatters. And On a rainy day in May, they drew Ryan Nott’s attention.
Continue reading →This is my Endgame. It’s time to gather ancestors… At SOAL we are saving our ancestors legacy. We will do it bone by bone if we have to. We’re gonna need them where we trying to go: We can’t have a future without a past. I’m not trying to leave anyone behind, … Continue reading →
Archives of the Sydney Howard Gay Fugitive Slave Interviews in Mid-19th Century NYC In 1855 and 1856, Sydney Howard Gay, the editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard and an operative in the underground railroad in New York City, decided to meticulously record the arrival of fugitive slaves at his office. The resulting … Continue reading →
Still Jumping Historic Hurdles Saving Central PA Black Cemeteries In October of 2021, the year SOAL began work at Lincoln Cemetery in Harrisburg, I had a chance to speak with Gabriela Martínez, of WITF –NPR Central Pennsylvania about how and why I started caring so deeply about Central Pa Black Cemeteries Gabriela … Continue reading →
after the apocalypse is a visual poem, inspired by SOAL’s restoration work at Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery. Taking a creative and radical approach to Black History Reclamation–video and poetry by Rachael Keri Williams. after the apocalypse… i’m gonna start a rainbow cult I’m going to start a rainbow worship cultAnd all The ancestors … Continue reading →
SOAL’s Lincoln Cemetery Restoration Year 1 Video Montage Since finding human remains on the ground in June 2021 at Harrisburg’s oldest historically Black burial ground, Lincoln Cemetery, a small but growing cadre of volunteers have been dedicated to Saving Our Ancestors Legacy using best-practice least-harm historic preservation methods. We have recovered headstones … Continue reading →
In Spring 2022 Rachael Keri Williams, founder of Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy, was featured on Comcast Keystone Newsmakers about SOAL’s work restoring Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery.
Continue reading →Lincoln Cemetery: Jim Crow’s Graveyard, Harrisburg’s Black Cemeteries & How There’s Only One Left It is time to tell the true history of Harrisburg’s Black Cemeteries. Lincoln Cemetery is Harrisburg’s oldest Black cemetery, but it was not founded in 1816, 1817, or 1827, as written iron on the cemetery’s front gates…The grounds … Continue reading →
Anna Eliza Williams was born on December 25, 1824, in France. She married Aquilla Amos, and they had six sons and two daughters together between 1844 and 1859. Serving different roles in various social organizations, Anna was committed to interconnected causes of temperance, women’s suffrage, and the betterment of the African American … Continue reading →
Thomas Morris Chester: Black Civil War Correspondent Thomas Morris Chester was the third child of George and Jane Chester, born in Harrisburg on May 11, 1834. He died in Harrisburg, Pa., Sept. 30, 1892, aged 58 and was buried in Harrisburg Lincoln Cemetery. Inheriting his mother’s courage, he created his legacy through … Continue reading →
I am filled with gratitude to share our first SOAL spotlight of Black History Month, 2022! Please consider donating to our GoFundMe to support the continuous efforts to bring legacies to light and honorably restore the resting places of our ancestors Jane Marie Chester contributed to the abolitionist cause through connections to … Continue reading →
Lincoln Cemetery Burial Records An example of two types of Harrisburg Lincoln Cemetery Burial Records that were digitized by SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy volunteers in 2021. Some of the other types include handwritten notebooks, family plot maps, record of payment, account ledgers, burial records compiled from funeral homes, and handwritten records of headstone inscriptions, … Continue reading →
The state of neglect and decay found when visiting Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery was a shocking discovery for 2 visitors from Buffalo, NY. They found dug up human remains in one of Pennsylvania’s oldest Black Cemeteries. New York local stumbles upon a shocking discovery in a Dauphin County cemetery Learn More about what … Continue reading →
