Washtenaw County Seeks to Rehabilitate Historic Black Cemetery
A historic Black cemetery in Ypsilanti Township is the focus of a Washtenaw County effort to rehabilitate this long-abandoned burial ground. The Washtenaw County Historic Preservation Commission and the African…
Panorama view tree shaded cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard with gravestone tombstone markers headstone, elaborate stone slab funeral, green space memorial park, Farmers Branch, Texas. USA
A historic Black cemetery in Ypsilanti Township is the focus of a Washtenaw County effort to rehabilitate this long-abandoned burial ground.
The Washtenaw County Historic Preservation Commission and the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County have partnered on the project to give Woodlawn Cemetery some much-needed attention.
The cemetery is overgrown with brush, and most of its grave markers have sunken beneath the ground. Among those buried here is Pastor Gather Roberson Sr., who purchased the land designated as the county's first and only Black cemetery. By 1965, however, Woodlawn Cemetery was declared abandoned, according to a WEMU report.
Debby Covington, chair of the board for the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County, said several veterans who served from World War I to the Korean War are buried at the cemetery. She believes the community should honor their service and sacrifice by fixing up their burial grounds.
“We are literally restoring Black history by restoring gravesites and how those before us impacted the community,” Covington said in an interview with WEMU.
