A Celebration of Austin’s Black Cemeteries

Even in sunshine, a particular shadow hovers over Bethany Cemetery, located along Springdale near 12th Street, in front of Sims Elementary School. The first observation upon making the slow drive through the dirt ground's roundabout is the acute lack of sanctuary for those laid to their eternal rest. There's a nonsensical sign, standing straight and tall near broken headstones, noting that the location is under watch of cameras, likely never installed. Trash dots the area around an old white oak tree. Fences bordering the cemetery have all been folded back – dog-eared and rusted.

Trying to turn Bethany's fortune and calling attention to Austin's ignored places of rest is Six Square, a nonprofit representing Austin's black cultural district. The group has invited national experts, scholars, local activists, and community members to participate this week in what's being billed as The Home­coming, a celebration of Austin's black cemeter­ies. In efforts to continue preservation of East Austin's black culture, they've planned a symposium and cemetery tour Nov. 4 & 5, which expects to provide rediscovery of Austin's lost black history. "We want to call attention to Austin's neglected African-American cemeteries," says Rev. Freddie Dixon, board chair. "But also facilitate awareness and education about the history and importance of African-American sacred burial grounds in East Austin."

Walking the grounds with Harrison Eppright, a staff member at Austin's Afri­can American Cultural Heritage District, the Bethany Cemetery's negligence is overwhelming. "So many graves have shifted with time," says Eppright, adjusting a fallen headstone. "Graves go neglected due to age or people dying, or forgetting; folks moving away, and vandalism. There were, I'm told, all sorts of horrible things [that] occurred here, and people did nothing – or if they complained to the police, the police did little."

Eppright says Six Square is trying to acknowledge Bethany and two other cemeteries – Plummers, on Springdale, near Givens Park, and Evergreen, located farther west, at 12th and Airport – the latter two are city-owned sites, explains Dale Flatt, president and founder of the Save Austin's Cemeter­ies nonprofit. The cemeteries are nontaxable, mainly because of their prior association with churches, many of which have since dissolved or moved. However, they've become almost unincorporated land, even within city limits, with no one legally responsible for maintenance. Save Austin's Cemeteries mostly monitors sites to ensure development doesn't overtake them.

"The city and state have no money to clean them," Flatt clarifies. "Bethany gets cleaned by the Travis County Sheriff's Office. [TCSO] found it cheaper to put nonviolent offenders on a bus, give them rakes, and clean cemeteries. The challenge we have is once you get past that second or third generation, nobody really connects with [the deceased] because they didn't know them."

Deep history lies in the soil. John W. Har­gis rests in Evergreen Cemetery; he was the first African-American to graduate from UT with a degree in chemical engineering and the patent holder for an innovation in magnetic recording tape. Flatt says that in Plummers Cemetery – formerly known as Mount Calvary, but changed in honor of Thomas Plummer, once the cemetery's sexton – there are "over 350 more people buried than the headstones you see," including one of a veteran from the Spanish-American War.

The terrible shame is that many of the cemeteries' graves mark the lives of former slaves who managed to live to see some measure of freedom. Unprompted during our tour, Eppright quoted a line from Paul the Apostle, taken from 1 Corinthians 15:55: "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?"

The sturdy and ashen headstone of Henry Foster, born in 1835 and buried in 1904, denotes a man who's now a memory. He surely felt the sting of lashes in his day. Is there also victory for people like Henry Foster?

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The Homecoming hosts a symposium Fri., Nov. 4, at Huston-Tillotson University, and a tour of Eastside cemeteries on Sat., Nov. 5. See www.sixsquare.org for information on both events.