Small slave cemetery hidden near I-75 dates to 1860s

Plot has 53 markers, but more than 1,000 may be buried there.

Q: Traveling on I-75 South after the split with I-85, below downtown, is a small cemetery. It’s in the middle of the exit to Cleveland Avenue. It is almost inaccessible. Strange place for a cemetery. Hundreds of thousands pass it weekly. Any chance of looking into it?

A: You are referring to Gilbert Memorial Cemetery. The graveyard is on the left as you exit I-75 to Cleveland Avenue SW, across from a Krystal fast-food restaurant.

The area, a little less than miah Gilbert, who in 1861 the width of a football field, set aside a portion for a cemis well-kept, with 53 headetery for slaves and their stones in perfect rows. family members, according

A fence separates the to a federal court opinion. interstate from the area. In the 1950s, the cemetery You can walk to the ceme- was destroyed by persons tery by taking the sidewalk unknown, according to a next to Cleveland Avenue. historic marker, and by the

The John Charles Birdine early 1980s, it was holding Jr. Memorial Bridge goes over up a major DOT project on I-75 at the intersection. I-75 and the Cleveland Ave

A row of about 20 trees nue ramps. would normally make it difA federal court opinion ficult to see the area during said an investigation revealed the summer. But during a that more than 1,000 peorecent spring day, it’s easy ple were buried there, the to see because the leaves are AJC reported. not fully out. A Georgia historic marker

The headstones represent at the site reads, “This memo- most likely only a fraction of rial is dedicated to the memthe slaves buried along I-75. ory of those individuals,

The AJC reported in 2012: known and unknown, here “The property once belonged interred.” to plantation owner Jere- Out of the 53 headstones in the plot, six are crosses. Fifty-one are commemorative markers with only names.

Two are decorative and engraved with names, birth and death dates (1896 and 1924).

Overlooking the cemetery is a small hill next to Cleveland Avenue, with a white obelisk memorial. Names are engraved on two of the four sides.

The small marker is hidden by overgrown bushes and weeds.

The area is filled with trash and smells of urine. Two homeless men watched visitors to the cemetery from their perch.

CONTRIBUTED BY KATHRYN KICKLITER Gilbert Memorial Cemetery is on the left as you exit I-75 to Cleveland Avenue SW.