Posted on 01/26/2005 11:08:23 AM PST by Constitution Day
Confederate group, blacks to clean up cemetery
The Associated Press
January 26, 2005 2:03 pm
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. -- Descendants of slaves will work along with men of Confederate ancestry to clean up an overgrown cemetery where the oldest graves belong to free blacks buried before the Civil War.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans Walt Bryson Camp 70 began visiting old family and church cemeteries in Henderson County in an effort to find Confederate veterans. They soon discovered many of the historic cemeteries were endangered by development and neglect.
Some had houses built on top of them and others were plowed under in fields.
Louis Dunbar, who represents blacks on the county Cemetery Advisory Committee, also discovered that Mill Pond Cemetery was in bad shape and asked for some help.
The upper section of the cemetery is well maintained, but the lower section is covered in 7-foot-tall pampas grass, small trees, stumps and fallen logs.
"These cemeteries need preserved out of respect and for their historical value," Dunbar said. "There has been too much disrespect of the grave sites in this county."
Whites and blacks are buried in the lower portion of the cemetery, said James Miller, whose ancestors deeded the land for a church and cemetery in 1859. That section of the cemetery was open to paupers for free burials, he said.
The oldest graves apparently belong to blacks.
Ellen Jones, who died in 1812, and Markus Henry, who died in 1865, are listed in early census reports as free blacks. James Harren, also buried in the lower section, was one of three men deeded land by Noble Johnson to establish a school in Colored District No. 4 in 1875, only 10 years after the end of the Civil War.
"We know there was a community of free blacks who lived in that area," said Evelyn Jones with the Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society. "But not much else about them."
The tall, thick grass is growing so fast that it is encroaching on the upper section of the cemetery. The grave marker of Edgar A. Lamb, 1890-1962, was found hidden in the grass.
Norman Miller of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said the cleanup will take hours of work with many volunteers wielding machetes, bush axes and swing blades to clear out the grass.
During a cleanup about five years ago, the grass at the cemetery was burned.
"I can understand why they burned it," Norman Miller said. "But I don't feel comfortable with that myself. It will blacken the stones and we need to decipher every stone we possibly can."
Can't wait, Walt.
"...concern for these people..."
Goes without saying.
"Do you think they want to be drawn into the culture wars?"
They already are, just not on a larger level. I deem that appropriate, to draw them in. By participating, they are part of the remedy.
...and Beaufort is in Carteret County and little Washington is in Beaufort County and Rockingham is in Richmond County and Eden is in Rockingham County and let's not confuse Mooresville with Morrisville and Eden with Edenton.
Yes, it's confusing alright.
BTW, I think this is a cool thing they're doing.
I'm with you on this without even reading the link...that i know homeboy.
How is Rachel?
Except for this: But here is the rub - trying to elevate this warming story into an "a-ha! See! See how NOT Racists we are! See the decendents of Slaves & Confederates holding hands!" is simply setting up the MSM to twist things to their liking.
I'm sorry. I just don't see how this plays into the MSM's hands.
I don't mind people noticing race or even commenting on it, just so long as they don't discriminate or attempt to justify racist beliefs.
If conservatives can't take notice of race in their thought and commentary, then how can they forthrightly address an issue which has riven the country since its founding. To put another gloss on my point, how can conservatives minister to blacks in this country if they can't discuss race or if they have to pretend that it doesn't exist? Is GW Bush violating the conservative code by pointing out that Social Security has a disparate impact on blacks? Would I violate the same code if I said that Asians are not assisted by the State of California's affirmative action policies, despite enduring a century of discrimination on the West Coast?
BTW, it's not that I disagree in principle with your statements. You're right: As a rule, conservatives ought to be less race-conscious (nay, less race-obsessed!) than liberals. I believe conservatives are the proper legatees of a color-blind ideal of justice, one which prizes equal treatment under the law and abhors unlawful discrimination. I just don't think that there is any need to take an ideal designed to secure justice in the legal realm so far that it limits our ability to articulate our positions or promote racial healing in society at large.
That's what I was going to say! My family has an old cemetery (early 1800s) and a new cemetery. The old cemetery has field stones that are completely illegible. Not to mention the area has been overgrown with brush and trees. It's been a long time since it was cared for properly.
I'm still trying to convince the family the right thing to do would be to exhume the bodies in the old cemetery (about 20) try to identify them and then rebury in the new cemetery.
Course, the idea is going over like a lead brick so far.
We find out el sexo del nino muy pronto.
I would pretty much agree with all of that.
I was also wrong about my fears of this thread turning into something else, which it has not. My fears apear groundless at this point.
bttt
What money? I was referring to "aspiring.hillbilly" and his asinine swipe at the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
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