Dekalb County Researchers identifying and memorializing some 450 unmarked graves located in the African American section of the Alexandria historic district cemetery.
Co-chair Kristina Wheeler said the project is currently in its first phase, which involves dedicating an initial tombstone featuring 100 names. The monument will be unveiled Tuesday.
“I think for us it’s an emotional project because there are so many unmarked graves up there and people that are lost in time,” Wheeler said. “And that when you’re walking through, we’re not just listing off names in tombstones, we’re researching their lives, we’re understanding who they lived with, we’re understanding what they did for a living.”
Wheeler said the cemetery likely dates back to 1850 and contains burials that continued until approximately 1960. Wheeler said it is likely former slaves buried at the location.
Wheeler said the research team is conducting a study to trace family relationships through census records, wills, and deed transfers to connect the history of those buried on both the African American and white sides of the cemetery.
“You’re reading the pension files where this woman who was you know- she was enslaved and her husband went off to the Civil War to fight for their freedom and he died,” Wheeler said. “And left her to raise the children and then she became free but she could not celebrate that moment with him.”
Wheeler said the majority of people buried in the cemetery who were born before 1864 were enslaved. Wheeler said Alexandria was home to many Black people before the Great Migration.
“Alexandria actually had a really really high percentage of the African American population in DeKalb up until probably about 1900 when a lot of the people seemed to have moved over to Illinois and other states because there was a greater economic opportunity,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said the second phase of the project will involve applying for grants and clearing the ground to conduct ground-penetrating radar. Wheeler said this technology will allow the team to formally identify and map the exact locations of unmarked graves across the entire district.
“We will be putting on final stones ‘the children of so-and-so’ the mother and the father to make sure they’re memorialized as well,” Wheeler said. “And any of the African Americans that seem to be lost in time as well as other Alexandria residents that were just lost in time, the Caucasians, the white people.
Wheeler said the project has received strong community support and is being funded through donations and grants as a 501(c)(3) organization. Wheeler said the team has already cleaned approximately a quarter of the stones on the white side and most of the stones on the east side while also repairing markers that have fallen.
“It’s really important to understand our history,” Wheeler said. “If we don’t understand the history and we don’t respect it, we tend to repeat things. And I think it really also helps people feel more connected to their community.”