The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

A rock wall separating the Black and white parts of the graveyard still stands. Ellington Burnett, who died in 1853, is the earliest known burial in the Black section of the cemetery. That being noted, many of the graves on that side of the property were marked with field stones without inscriptions, illustrating the subhuman way with which slaves were treated at UNC Chapel Hill, even in death. Many of those uninscribed markers have been destroyed, resulting in a vast majority of the 199 unmarked graves in the cemetery being located in the Black section. The marked graves of white men and women are largely well-known and, for the most part, still standing. The graveyard fell out of use after reaching its boundaries on South and Country Club Roads in the 1920s, having vastly expanded following the Civil War, in which many students and faculty fought to uphold slavery. In the last century, the Black side of the property has faced several instances of vandalism. There is one instance of tar heel football fans using that area for parking before a 1985 game against Clemson. Other egregious vandalisms have gone unpunished. In 1999, the Black Student Movement lobbied for the section to be repaired. In 2010, an archaeological survey of the site began. Many students are still without knowledge of the segregated history of the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, let alone the University’s long history of enslavement and systemic racism. 

THE OLD CHAPEL HILL CEMETERY, Internment.net. Accessed May 7th 2021. http://www.interment.net/data/us/nc/orange/old-chapel-hill/old-chapel-hill-cemetery-north-carolina.pdf.

Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, Town Of Chapel Hill. Accessed May 7th 2021. https://www.townofchapelhill.org/government/departments-services/parks-and-recreation/cemeteries/old-chapel-hill-cemetery.

Russ, Terri, and Keith C Seramur. “Investigation Of Portions Of The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina.” The Preservation Society Of Chapel Hill, September 2012.