BLM Effect: Protecting Black Cemeteries

What’s happening? Arkansas, Florida and Virginia, along with the District of Columbia, enacted legislation that provided funding for the cemeteries or created committees to study the preservation of cemeteries. Virginia House Bill 285 (2019).

Why is this important? Human dignity. Descendants could be contacted before cemeteries are disturbed.

How will this be important? New Hampshire’s SB 258 (2022 | NH) would require local government officials to provide reasonable access to records and sites to the descendants and descendant community to identify and examine the graves. Florida’s SB 1588 (2022 | FL) would “create a program within the state’s Division of Historical Resources to research and identify abandoned cemeteries, develop maintenance guidance and prioritize placement of historical markers for abandoned or lost African American cemeteries”

Route Fifty | Black Advocates Take Ownership of Ancestors’ History; Legislation Could Help