Garden Cemeteries and African-American Funerary Customs

Introduction With the end of the American Civil War, African-Americans in the South were for the first time able to participate as individuals within the economic sphere. This participation came at a time of increased product homogenization and availability of grave markers. The use of widely available material culture has many times been “…dismissed as evidence of assimilation or acculturation.” (Singleton 1995:134) when seen in minority groups. The idea that homogenization of material goods is associated with assimilation and acculturation has led to a belief that 19th century African-American funerary practices were merely the result of Christian influences (Jamieson 1995:55), or attempts at masking social and economic disparity (Bell 1990:68). However, this is an oversimplification of African-American funerary practices, and fails to recognize that purchasing choices exist even within a homogenized material culture. In this paper, I am studying the design and use of space at Evergreen Cemetery, an African-American garden style cemetery, as a communicative landscape. I am using Hollywood Cemetery as the standard expression of a garden style cemetery in the South, and place the similarities and differences seen in Evergreen within the context of the society in which it was created. By doing this, it is possible to understand Evergreen Cemetery as both an attempt at acceptance and assimilation into white society by African-Americans as well as an expression of self and social identity.
Importance of the Cemetery Before discussing how the spatial design and use of Evergreen Cemetery was reflective of African-Americans’ current, and hoped for, place within society, the place of the cemetery within African-American communities of the South needs to be established. African-Americans focused on death to such a degree that Booker T. Washington lamented, “The trouble with us is that we are always preparing to die.” (Cited in Roediger 1981:63). The