SOAL to Create Black Cemetery Historic Preservation Plan SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is thrilled to announce the creation of the first comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan for the future of Lincoln Cemetery. Historic preservation planning is an often-overlooked step in historic Black Cemetery conservation and maintenance. In this groundbreaking initiative SOAL teams up with industry … Continue reading →
Harrisburg’s Civil War Veterans Buried at Lincoln Cemetery This list is by no means complete, but I figure if I keep waiting until it is complete, I would never be able to publish it… While compiling this, long-overdue, list of African American Civil War Veterans buried at Lincoln Cemetery, I realized that … Continue reading →
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 →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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
