Pleasant Garden Cemetery revisited
For almost 50 years, one of the most historic cemeteries in Chattanooga has remained almost hidden by the creeping vines at the Missionary Ridge site. Thanks to a quest to save the cemetery led originally by local Hamilton County Principal LaFrederick Thirkill and preservationist David Young and now coordinated by the Chattanooga African-American Cemetery Committee, Pleasant Garden may soon emerge into the sunshine.
Pleasant Garden Cemetery, located off Rowe Road in Shepherd Hills, was chartered in 1890; the first burials occurred in 1891. By the mid-20th century, the cemetery had expanded to about 22 acres with an estimated 3,000-plus graves, but the land transferred through a series of private owners who demonstrated little commitment to properly maintaining the burial sites. In 1970, it closed, and the land slowly began to reclaim both the marked and unmarked graves. Stories of Chattanooga’s largest exclusively African American cemetery and the prominent citizens buried there circulated in the community even as access to the site became more limited.
Thirkill, in an interview almost 20 years ago, noted that the cemetery “was a cultural hotspot … a place where people were buried … a time where people gathered and celebrated life together.” Thirkill attributed his strong interest in the cemetery’s preservation to the fact that his grandfather, Willis Orr, is buried there.
David Young, a Shepherd Hills resident, has worked for more than 20 years to save the cemetery and is a founding member of the current preservation committee.
“I lost count years ago of how many loads of brush have been hauled away as I worked. My parents taught me the value of hard work, and I love being outside so I continue working almost every day. I try to describe to others how dense the growth was, how enormous the brush piles were, how scary it was to venture into the cemetery, but my words are inadequate,” he said. “In the early years, there was little support for my efforts. Now, I often sit on my patio, look at the cemetery and remember — good remembering, but sometimes it brings tears.”
And yet, while the cemetery has often almost disappeared from sight, interest periodically has focused regional and national attention on those buried there. The Ed Johnson Memorial Committee, formed in 2016, worked toward “remembrance, reconciliation and unity” as they organized community meetings designed to deal with the wrongful death of Johnson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Johnson, lynched on the Walnut Street Bridge in 1906 and buried at Pleasant Garden, will soon be memorialized with a commissioned sculpture near the bridge. Current research continues about the Andrew Wright and LeRoy Wright, two of the “Scottsboro Boys” buried at the site. Chattanooga citizens may also recall the televised 2011 visit of musician Lionel Richie as he sought the 1931 grave of his grandfather, John Louis Brown, the founder of the “Knights of Wise Men.” Reports that Virginia Bettes, great-great-grandmother of the Duchess of Sussex, the former Megan Markle, is among those buried at Pleasant Garden were mentioned in the publicity surrounding her marriage to Prince Harry.
Dr. Carroll Van West, Tennessee State historian, and Dr. Tiffany Momon of the University of the South at Sewanee have begun to gather the documents and information necessary to prepare a nomination of the property to the National Registry of Historic Places. In addition, working with the local preservation committee, Dr. Stacey Graham of the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation is planning a series of cemetery preservation workshops.
As Dr. Van West noted, “Pleasant Garden is Chattanooga and Hamilton County’s largest historic African American cemetery created by a group of black citizens when Jim Crow segregation closed city cemeteries to black families. As we recover from COVID-19, we look forward to continued work with the interest groups to preserve this cemetery, designed in the park-like ‘rural cemetery movement’ style, as a very significant place in the city’s history.”
While community groups have volunteered periodically, especially on the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Day of Service, much work remains. Local historic cemetery preservation projects help us save the tangible reminders of our own mortality and provide residents with spaces that function as open-air museums. Attending a cemetery preservation workshop, when announced, or volunteering on a scheduled work day is an excellent place to begin.
CLARIFICATION: In last week’s history column, Mount Olivet Cemetery’s location should have been identified as above Ringgold Road in East Ridge.