Volunteers clear overgrowth at historically Black cemetery in Ypsilanti to celebrate Juneteenth
After decades of disrepair, the descendants of those buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and volunteers are working to restore their resting places.
Thomas Marshall's oldest brother survived serving in the Korean War but passed in a car crash one year after returning home to Michigan.
"He was buried here, and no one knows exactly where he is buried," he said.
For a long time, the organizer said Woodlawn Cemetery was the only one in Washtenaw County that would accept Black bodies. Marshall said years ago, there was a shed that held the information on who was buried where, but the shed has since burned down.
"We've been trying to figure out where his headstone should be placed, and so far we haven't had any luck, but we know he's here somewhere," Marshall said.
Back in the 1960s, the land began falling into disrepair. Marshall and upwards of a hundred volunteers gathered on Thursday to continue work clearing overgrown plants around the cemetery.
"Over the years, there have been starts and stops around restoring it, but this year we began in earnest with restoring this property," said Debby Mitchell Covington, one of the organizers.
Covington said multiple organizations worked together to plan Thursday's event, including the Washtenaw County Historic District Commission and the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County.
"I kind of think about this project as making the invisible visible, and everyone can have a hand in that," she said.
That goal rings true for Marshall, too.
"To me, I'm getting a little choked up; to be able to place his headstone where it belongs would be an honor not just for my brother but for the rest of my family and my mother in particular," he said.
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