'It's a way to honor them': Lights glow at unmarked graves in African American cemetery

MOUNT HOLLY SPRINGS – A warm glow now rises above previously unmarked graves of 44 people who lay in rest in the Cedar Street Cemetery.

On Saturday, members of the Mt. Tabor Preservation Project and volunteers gathered at the historic African American cemetery to install solar lights on the graves that had no headstones.

It was the culmination of several years’ worth of work to memorialize a portion of the African American history of the post-Civil War era in this Cumberland County borough.

To Carmen James, a board member of the preservation project, the installation of the lights to mark the graves is an important part of the story of the individuals buried there.

“Everybody needs to have something at the very end and we’re just trying to do that,” James said. “It’s a way to honor them.”

Only 15 graves in this cemetery have headstones, including the graves of seven Civil War veterans.

At one time, James said some of the others may have had a wooden cross or other object to mark them but they have since deteriorated, erasing the identity and location of their final resting places.


Link: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/04/its-a-way-to-honor-them-lights-now-glow-at-unmarked-graves-in-african-american-cemetery.html