A Community Activist, a Cultural Anthropologist, and an Archaeologist Walk into a Cemetery

Re-establishing Community Pride After a Jim Crow Atrocity

Bibliographic Data

ID18968396
AuthorsE Bailey (0000-0002-5877-4370, East Carolina University), Charles Ewen, Charles R Ewen (East Carolina University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume9
Issue3
Pages239-254
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2161-9441 • E-ISSN: 2161-9468
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21619441.2021.1902185
OpenAlexW3153894567
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

In 1914, following the passage of Jim Crow segregation laws, over a dozen African American graves were exhumed from the primarily White Cedar Grove Cemetery in New Bern, North Carolina and reburied in the nearby Black Greenwood Cemetery. A century later, local community activists contacted anthropologists at East Carolina University to investigate the site of this atrocity. Archaeological work relocated the reburied remains and found them to be in such poor condition that the city elected to post signage commemorating this history rather than moving the graves yet again. The collaboration between the city and the university was able to produce an acceptable, if not perfect, solution to a potentially volatile problem

Archaeology · Art · Dozen · Political science · Pride · Signage · Sociology · Visual arts · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis