A Place for Memory

Baltimore's Historic Laurel Cemetery

Buch | Hardcover

220 Seiten

2023
Rowman & Littlefield (Verlag)
978-1-5381-5613-1 (ISBN)

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Laurel Cemetery was incorporated in 1852 as a nondenominational cemetery for African Americans of Baltimore, Maryland. It was the final resting place for thousands of Baltimoreans and many prominent members of the community, including religious leaders, educators, political organizers, and civil rights activists. During its existence, the privately owned cemetery changed hands several times, and by the 1930s, the site was overgrown, and garbage strewn from years of improper maintenance and neglect. In the 1950s, legislation was adopted permitting the demolition and sale of the property for commercial purposes. Despite controversy over the new legislation, local opposition to the demolition, numerous lawsuits, and NAACP supported court appeals, the cemetery was demolished in 1958 to make room for the development of a shopping center. Prior to the bulldozing of the cemetery, a few hundred gravestones and an unknown number of burials (fewer than 200) were exhumed and relocated to a new site in Carroll County. Ongoing archival research has thus far documented over 18,000 (projected to be over 40,000) original burials, most of which still remain interred beneath the Belair-Edison Crossing shopping center property, which occupies the footprint of the old cemetery.

This book highlights and historicizes underexplored and forgotten people and events associated with the cemetery, stressing the importance of their work in laying the social, economic, and political foundation for Baltimore’s African American community. Additionally, this text details the unsuccessful fight to prevent the cemetery’s destruction and the more recent grassroots formation of the Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project to research and commemorate the site and the people buried there.

Elgin Klugh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Social and Political Sciences at Coppin State University. His primary research interests include heritage, cultural landscapes, and community revitalization. He currently serves as chair for the Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project.Isaac Shearn currently holds adjunct positions at the Community College of Baltimore County, University of Baltimore, Coppin State University, and Morgan State University. In addition to his work in Baltimore, his research interests include the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Caribbean and South America, with a focus on public archaeology, developing inclusive and participatory methods.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: The Story of Laurel Cemetery

Authors: Elgin Klugh and Isaac Shearn

PART ONE

Chapter 2:"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Resurrecting Baltimore's Laurel Cemetery

Author: Edward C. Papenfuse

Chapter 3: Laurel Cemetery: Key to Unlocking Baltimore’s African American History

Author: Donna Tyler Hollie

Chapter 4:Creating a Legacy of Activism

Author: Beverly B. Carter

Chapter 5:“Gather around their sacred remains”: An Overview of the Laurel National Cemetery

Author: Robert W. Schoeberlein

Chapter 6:Not Without a Fight: The Decline and Closure of Laurel Cemetery

Author: Isaac Shearn

PART TWO

Chapter 7:Public Archaeology at Laurel Cemetery

Author: Ronald A. Castanzo

Chapter 8:Archival Research: Reconstructing the burial population of Laurel Cemetery

Author: Glenn A. Blackwell

Chapter 9:Reconciling the Landscape: Public Engagement and Placemaking at the site of

Laurel Cemetery

Author: Elgin Klugh

Chapter 10:Afterword

Author: Elgin Klugh

Bibliography

List of Contributors

Index

About the Editors

Erscheinungsdatum	31.01.2023
Verlagsort	Lanham, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-10	1-5381-5613-X / 153815613X
ISBN-13	978-1-5381-5613-1 / 9781538156131
Zustand	Neuware