This is Evergreen Cemetery, burial ground for some of the elite citizens of Richmond in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Bankers, publishers, doctors, lawyers — the type of upper crust who are usually lionized in this city of monuments. Except that all of these people were black, and the city’s grand cemeteries wouldn’t have them when they died.
Founded 126 years ago, the 60-acre Evergreen has no ongoing means of support. Only a network of dedicated volunteers keeps it and the adjacent East End Cemetery from being erased by time and vegetation.
But help may be on the way, in a form that could offer hope to other African American cemeteries across Virginia in similar predicaments. A bill working its way through the General Assembly would set aside money for Evergreen and East End — just as the state already pays for the upkeep of thousands of Confederate graves statewide.
“They have been left out of the equation,” said Del. Delores L. McQuinn (D-Richmond), who sponsored the bill. “We’ve got a whole laundry list of Confederate cemeteries and Revolutionary cemeteries that are given money every year. We’re not asking for anything out of the normal.”
31 comments
FB_1538597029493340
FB_1411523368860067
FB_1286427144765610
FB_10153943966221604
FB_10211094336185110
FB_10207837027951533
FB_10101230585039707
FB_10103888924506166
FB_10154460944738736
FB_10105280612711653
FB_10154823233251649
FB_10155039429837990
FB_10211116872228825
FB_10202520247683271
FB_10209683129469368
FB_10101072725745877
FB_10212171576990696
FB_10153804522090834
FB_10101108015425077
FB_1206119449424292
FB_10211297045484660
FB_10154313113327683
FB_10212072987163701
FB_10211190521624643
FB_10103670994878886
FB_701276484685
FB_1915882435297969
FB_10154172284985812
FB_1441447649219593
FB_10210901183190074
FB_1383093521731584