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Relocation of old African-American cemetery on Lafarge Quarry takes slow, delicate work

Nov, 16 2009

(Atlanta, Georgia) -- Jeff Gardner, the archaeologist has spent the past two months carefully sifting through dirt, trying to preserve the remains of generations of Clayton County families.

Gardner thought he was looking for 270 historic African American graves buried behind Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

He found more than 340 – and is still digging.

Lafarge Aggregates, which owns the quarry, said they have no plans to relocate the graves.

Gardner and his crew are moving the graves -- which date back to the mid-1800s -- from the middle of a landfill in College Park to a public cemetery in Riverdale.

“We’re now finding graves that are smaller. Many of the graves I thought were adults are actually two children buried side by side,” Gardner said last week.

Workers with Stephens MDS, a rock and dirt recycling company, rediscovered the abandoned Union Bethel AME Church Cemetery while expanding its 200-acre landfill.

The cemetery had not been visited in decades. Not only was it overgrown, but it was surrounded by the landfill on one side and a rock quarry on the other.

In December, the Clayton County Commission approved the cemetery’s relocation.

“The cemetery was totally abandoned,” said Shawn Davis, a spokesman for Stephens MDS. “We wanted it placed in a permanent, protected and public cemetery.”

After news of the approval in last December, several family members and dozens of civil rights activists complained. They filed lawsuits and marched in protest.

But after judges dismissed the suits and preachers blessed the move in July, the families quieted down.

“We decided to let it go ahead and be moved,” said 72-year-old Betty Bowden whose grandfather is buried in the cemetery. “Regardless of what’s right or wrong, the law said they can move it and I’m satisfied.”

Bowden and other community members have said several slaves were buried at Union Bethel, but there are no records to confirm that.

Bowden, one of only three descendants identified, said she thinks the move is disrespectful, but she hasn’t been able to visit her ancestors because of the location of the graves.

“It was overgrown and all of the headstones were knocked down,” she said Sunday.

Since the end of September, Gardner and his crew have cleared the vegetation and slowly bulldozed away several layers of soil.

Through special probing tools and GPS mapping, they marked each grave.

“We scrape with the backhoe until we see the grave shaft and then we do everything by hand,” Gardner said.

Most of the wooden coffins have deteriorated, but Gardner said he is able to identify the grave shaft by different colors and textures in the soil.

The crew spends about two hours per grave using shovels, trowels, bamboo picks and other hand tools to carefully lift the remains, surrounding dirt and any artifacts.

“State law mandates an archaeologist needs to be involved in the disinterment because we make sure we get all the remains,” Gardner said. The remains are then placed in a fiberglass coffin, loaded into a truck and driven to the Carver Memorial Gardens on Upper Riverdale Road where they are immediately reburied by a funeral director.

“We rebury everyday,” Gardner said. “We didn’t want to have any exposed for any length of time.”

Less than half of the grave shafts have full remains, but the archaeologists are careful to collect all of the dirt and any nails, buttons or other artifacts found in the area.

“Even if we just get soil, we know it is associated with the remains and it goes in the coffin,” Gardner said.

In one of the grave shafts, the crew found a cough medicine bottle dating back to the early 1900s buried between the feet of the deceased.

“The cap was still on and the medicine was in it,” Gardner said. “We just placed it back in the coffin.”

Heavy rain has disrupted operations, but the crew hopes to have the relocation complete by the first week of December.

The Union Bethel graves will be marked off in a separate section at Carver. All of the headstones found at Union Bethel will be placed at the new location.

While the majority of the graves are not marked, the archaeologists are careful to mark each one by its location. A number is placed on each casket. Those numbers are then recorded on a map so descendents can find their loved ones based on location.

“Only five or six had markers with some sort of inscription,” Gardner said.

But not all of the Union Bethel graves will be reburied at Carver. About a quarter of the Union Bethel cemetery is in the middle of a College Park quarry, which is now owned by Stephens.

“While we have no current plans, we are happy to work with the county and community to find a solution for this issue,” said Serene Jweied, a spokeswoman for Lafarge.

Gardner said he has pushed for the cemetery to be kept together, but he has no authority to move the remaining graves.

“When you deal with something like this and don’t have many families, you have to deal with it like it’s your own family,” said Wade Brannan, of Stephens MDS. “This has become like my family.”

By: Megan Matteucci



Source: www.ajc.com