Preserving Black Heritage: Florida activists fight to save historic site and their culture
/Blog/Endangered-African-American-Historic-Sites/Endangered-African-American-Historic-Sites/Preserving-Black-Heritage-Florida-activists-fight-to-save-historic-site-and-their-culture/?link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Saturday, November 19, 2022 • • General
Behind a chain-link fence six miles from the cacophony of Orlando, a jumble of old masonry sits quiet and still, the foundations of what was the heart of a historically Black community nearly obscured by tall grasses swaying in a hot Central Florida wind.
The Hungerford property, as it is known, makes up 15% of the tiny town of Eatonville, a 1.6-square-mile patch of modest homes and businesses that is one of the oldest incorporated Black communities in the U.S. For the county school board offering the 100-acre tract for sale, the developers eager to build on it and a narrow majority of the town council, it is clear what they see behind the fence: profit.
/Blog/Endangered-African-American-Historic-Sites/Endangered-African-American-Historic-Sites/The-disgraceful-history-of-erasing-Black-cemeteries-in-the-United-States/?link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 • • General
The burying ground looks like an abandoned lot. Holding the remains of upward of 22,000 enslaved and free people of color, the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground in Richmond, Virginia, established in 1816, sits amid highways and surface roads. Above the expanse of unmarked graves loom a deserted auto shop, a power substation, a massive billboard. The bare ground of the cemetery is strewn with weeds.
/Blog/Endangered-African-American-Historic-Sites/Endangered-African-American-Historic-Sites/The-Unity-Cemetery-Preservation-Fund-is-accepting-applications-for-funding-in-2026/?link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Friday, September 26, 2025 • • General
It is our pleasure to announce that the Unity Cemetery Fund is accepting applications for funding in 2026. The attached PDF includes detailed information about the grant process. Applications will be due February 28th, 2026. The award will be announced in May 2026.
In 2024 the Unity Cemetery Fund was pleased to be able to award funding to Geer Cemetery in North Carolina for needed repairs and infrastructure work, and in 2025 we provided funding to the Descendants of Olivewood in Texas for needed repairs within their cemetery.
/Blog/Endangered-African-American-Historic-Sites/Endangered-African-American-Historic-Sites/A-Search-for-Ancestors-Sheds-New-Light-on-Pierce-Chapel-African-Cemetery/?link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Sunday, August 17, 2025 • • General
As a society, we struggle with the concepts of death and loss. Once those realities touch our lives though, we tend to lean into remembrance: through familial altars, commemorative t-shirts, even memorial tattoos. We recognize our late loved ones through physical spaces, cemeteries, with touching gravestones, and bouquets lining the casket buried below.
But for an immeasurable number of Black families, even this basic respect wasn't extended to their ancestors. Many curious descendants, like Yamona Pierce, have to carry out search expeditions for their family members, constructing retroactive family trees to trace lineages that weren't carefully written down.
Visitor Comments (0)
