African American Unmarked Graves, Chapel Hill
The memorial for the unmarked graves is a large granite tablet style tombstone with a low serpentine top. The stone is rough hewn on all sides with two rectangle sections inset into the front face for the inscriptions. It stands on a single granite base. The primary inscription is an excerpt from George Moses Horton poem “The Rising Sun.” Horton was the first African-American man to publish a book in the south.
This marker replaced one that had been installed on February 4, 2016 and then removed on February 29. See Controversies section below.
“THUS WE LIKE BIRDS RETREAT / TO GROVES, AND HIDE FROM EV’RY EYE, / OUR SLUMBR’ING DUST WILL RISE AND MEET / ITS MORNING IN THE SKY,” GEORGE MOSES HORTON / ENSLAVED POET AND INTELLECTUAL
IN HONOR OF THOSE BURIED HERE / IN UNMARKED GRAVES / SEPTRMBER 18, 2016
Town of Chapel Hill
September 18, 2016
35.911800 , -79.044400
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Inge, Leoneda. “Monument Remembering African Americans Unveiled at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery,” WUNC, September 20, 2016, Accessed December 27, 2023) Link
Williams, Chris. “Chapel Hill Unveils Cemetery Marker to Honor Unmarked Graves,” Spectrum News, September 18, 2016, spectrumlocalnews.com, (accessed December 27, 2023) Link
“Chapel Hill Moves Forward With New Cemetery Marker,” Chapelboro.com, June 21, 2016, (accessed December 27, 2023) Link
“Chapel Hill Unveils New Cemetery Marker,” Chapelboro.com, September 19, 2016, (accessed December 27, 2023) Link
“Grave Marker in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery for College Servants,” The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of University History, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, museum.unc.edu, (accessed December 27, 2023) Link
“Mason Farm and Old Chapel Hill Cemeteries,” University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, gradschool.unc.edu, (accessed December 27, 2023) Link
“Old Chapel Hill Cemetery,” Town of Chapel Hill, townofchapelhill.org, (accessed December 27, 2023) Link
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Granite
Town of Chapel Hill
$4,100
Local pastor, Rev. Robert Campbell, whose great-great-grandmother and other relatives are buried in the cemetery unveiled the monument. “Standing tall but [sic] reflects the past, but it also gives us a beacon for the future,” Campbell stated. Members of the UNC Black Student Movement sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called the “Black National Anthem.”
Burials in the segregated Old Chapel Hill Cemetery were often marked by field stones instead of headstones with inscriptions. Through the years many of the stones were not recognized as grave markers and had been removed or relocated leaving many unidentified graves. Lacking inscriptions, vandals had removed stones and some had been used to repair the wall between the white and black sections of the cemetery leaving the black section so barren that it was even used for visitor parking for a 1985 football game.
After the discovery of 361 unmarked graves the town attempted to honor them by placing a marker in February 2016. Never dedicated, it was quickly removed after UNC students complained about its wording and design. The smaller granite marker inscription read, “Here Rest in Honored Glory 361 Persons of Color Known But to God” in language modeled after the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Steve Moore, Chapel Hill Cemeteries Advisory Board chairman said, “The feeling was it was simple, it was gracious, and it was appropriate for what we were wanting to do.” After acknowledging that the marker’s approval had not gone through the normal process that included a public input meeting the town turned over the design of a replacement to the town’s naming committee. The replacement finally approved was much larger, more prominent, in size and cost than the one removed which had cost $1,875.
The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery is located on the corner of Country Club and South Roads, near the main UNC campus in Chapel Hill, NC.
The memorial is surrounded by graveyards.
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