The Freedman's Cemetery Memorial: A Compassionate Symbol
The Oak Grove-Freedman's Cemetery Memorial public art project honors the over one hundred fifty known and unknown African Americans, both enslaved and free, buried at the Freedman's Cemetery, Salisbury, North Carolina. The Memorial, located at the corner of Liberty Street and North Church Street in downtown Salisbury, was designed by artist Maggie Smith with landscape architect, Sam Reynolds. The City of Salisbury managed the construction of the site and the Waterworks served as the public art selection and fundraising steward. The Memorial was dedicated on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 16, 2006.
The Oak Grove-Freedman's Memorial project was spearheaded by a 25-member citizen's committee chaired by Dr. Catrelia Hunter, and thirteen organizations served as partners. Over the span of eight years, the Memorial project received public funding support through the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the North Carolina Humanities Council, the City of Salisbury and Rowan County. Private contributions were made from over 170 individuals and groups, organizations and churches, and businesses. Area foundations contributing to the Memorial include The Robertson Family Foundation, and The Woodson, Proctor, Hurley-Trammel, Salisbury Community Foundation, Triangle Community Foundation, Wilson Smith Family Foundation, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation..
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PROJECT HISTORY
The Freedman’s Cemetery is the burial site of over 150 known and unknown enslaved and free African American men, women, and children. Deeded in 1970 to the City of Salisbury, the cemetery was established to serve as a burial ground for Salisbury’s African American population. The site is part of a larger cemetery parcel that is dominated by the Old English Cemetery, known at one time as the Oak Grove Cemetery.
According to a report written by Dr. Jonathon Reynolds and Kevin Cherry, the Old English Cemetery is home to the graves of soldiers who died in 1780 at the Battle of Camden and to British soldiers who died in Salisbury during Cornwallis’ occupation of the city. In 1842, a wooden fence was erected around the Old English Cemetery per the will of William Gay, separating the burial sites of African Americans and whites for the first time. In 1855, citizens of Salisbury raised money to replace the fence with a granite wall, which remains there today. Since 1903, portions of the Freedman’s Cemetery have been violated, bodies disinterred, and markers removed. The last markers were noted in 1940. In 1975, the City of Salisbury assumed ownership of the cemetery and at that time closed it to future burials.
The Oak Grove-Freedman’s Cemetery Memorial honors those individuals buried in the Freedman’s Cemetery. According to artist and designer of the Memorial Maggie Smith, “the restoration and memorialization of the Oak Grove-Freedman’s Cemetery has one primary goal: to symbolically and literally bring the desecrated part of the cemetery back into the community’s embrace.”
Additionally, as former facilitator of the project, Denny Mecham, stated, “The enhanced burial site will stand as a compassionate symbol which acknowledges the past, challenges us to think about the present, and offers hope for future generations.”
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