The Evergreen Cemetery

Jul 6

📍Evergreen Cemetery, next to the Baxter-Patrick Library on James Island

Some Context

I’ve always been a person who enjoys visiting cemeteries. Maybe “enjoying” is the wrong word but if I have the opportunity to visit a cemetery, big or small, I’m going to take it. I used to live near a huge cemetery in Charleston and getting to walk around the winding paths and corridors reinvigorated the spark within me. Seeing local street names on old stones, standing in the aisles Googling names that seemed familiar or unique or had larger headstones than others, and learning about the worlds created and destroyed at their hands was more interesting than I could have imagined. It isn’t that my hometown didn’t have their own cemeteries, but there is something about the historic Charleston setting that just feels different.

Recent Read/Influence

“OVER MY DEAD BODY: UNEARTHING THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA'S CEMETERIES” by Greg Melville https://www.gregmelville.com (shop local if you can!). I’m about 1/4 of the way through this audiobook but this deeply inspired my choice to stay the extra few minutes while at the library and peruse the cemetery.

Today’s Expedition

Today I accompanied my boyfriend on some Pokémon Go expedition (don’t ask me about what it was because I truthfully do not know) and we ended up at the local library. Instead of pulling out my cellphone like I normally do, I decided to get some vitamin D and read the signs in the parking lot I typically just walk past. While the facts and recommended reads were interesting, the part that stood out to me most was the short sentence noting that “next door to the library is a cemetery.” Having patroned this library for almost 3 years, I was shocked by how oblivious I’d been to the cemetery that is essentially in the parking lot.

I wrangled my boyfriend into walking around it with me and we weren’t disappointed. This one has markers for burials throughout the 1900s and as late as ~2003. It has ties to a plantation family around town (Grimball) and is historically African American in occupant, typically understood to be relatives of enslaved populations. There are a few markers without headstones at all - just small markers or PVC pipe crosses marking bodies discovered without identity in recent years. It felt a tad shocking to find a stone marked with the same birth year as me marking someone gone far too soon.

Here was my favorite quote from one of the headstones:

"Love illumes the realm of night”

I’ve created a “bucket list” of sorts to visit more cemeteries and learn more about them, especially around Charleston using “Find a Grave” as a list. I’ll keep doing more research along the way, but below are a few articles I found interesting about this specific cemetery. There is much more to learn about African American cemeteries around town - I won’t pretend to be an expert but I am enjoying and feeling called to learn more. Any other great resources? Drop them in the comments to share!