Glenwood Cemetery: Walking Tour of a Historical African-American Cemetery

Those buried in Glenwood Cemetery have a history unlike any other in Huntsville, Alabama. An African American Cemetery founded by the city in 1870, Glenwood Cemetery is Huntsville’s oldest surviving African-American burial ground. Glenwood is the resting place of people born slaves, emancipated, and who lived out the remainder of their days in the separate-but-equal south. Buried here are people of great accomplishment, including doctors, educators, clergymen, political leaders, merchants, and artisans. Tombstones identify those who fought in America’s war, men who risked their lives in defense of a nation that denied their civil rights.

No burial records for Glenwood were kept until the 1950s and there was no historical plot of the cemetery. Working with community volunteers, the Huntsville Cemetery Director, Joy McKee, coordinated a project that identified, located, and cataloged all the graves in Glenwood cemetery, many of which were unmarked. Their efforts led to the listing of Glenwood Cemetery in Alabama’s Register of Historic Cemeteries and the National Register of Historic Places.

The history of Glenwood Cemetery begins with Georgia, Huntsville’s first African American cemetery established on two acres of land sold by LeRoy Pope to Huntsville City Commissioners in 1818. The site of the original Georgia cemetery is on land now occupied by the Huntsville Hospital parking garage, near the intersection of Madison Street and St. Clair Avenue. Huntsville leaders decided in 1870 to establish a new African American cemetery on the city’s western boundaries, on ten acres of land between Holmes and Clinton Avenues. As no one kept burial records of those buried in Georgia, it is unknown how many graves were moved from the Georgia cemetery to Glenwood and how many bodies remain in the ground beneath the hospital complex.

The first efforts to identify and document those buried at Glenwood began in 1993 when Mrs. Ollye Conley took her students from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language to the cemetery on a search for Huntsville’s African American history. Documenting Glenwood Cemetery became a special project of the Academy, as Mrs. Conley, teachers, students, and parents used information from tombstones to research those buried there and their history. In 1996, working with the Cemetery Department, a historical marker from the Alabama Historical Association was placed at the cemetery. Mrs. Conley and her students received commendations from Presidents Clinton and Bush for their work. In order to make the history of those buried at Glenwood Cemetery more accessible, this walking tour has been created.

** Over many years, Mrs. Ollye Conley, local Glenwood Cemetery historian, and many student and adult volunteers have gathered the information about the lives of those people included in the tour. Other volunteers in several organizations drafted the included profiles with the gathered information. Dr. Dorla Evans and Mrs. Penny Sumners of Twickenham Town Chapter, NSDAR, in Huntsville, organized the effort, ensured format consistency, found headstones, and uploaded the materials to this TheClio site.

WE RECOMMEND THAT VISITORS PRINT OUT THE SATELLITE MAP, INCLUDING ALL STOPPING PINS, BEFORE ARRIVING AT THE CEMETERY. THIS WILL PROVIDE A GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE HEADSTONE LOCATIONS. WHILE WALKING FROM ONE HEADSTONE TO ANOTHER, VISITORS SHOULD USE THE PRINTED SATELLITE MAP, THE LIVE SATELLITE MAP ON THE WEBSITE, AND THE SATELLITE PHOTOS AVAILABLE IN THE PHOTO SECTION OF THE ENTRY TO HELP NAVIGATE BETWEEN LOCATIONS. THE LIVE SATELLITE IMAGES ON THE WEBSITE CAN BE ROTATED TO IMPROVE VISIBILITY AROUND AND BENEATH TREES FOR BETTER ORIENTATION, OR THIS LINK MAY HELP (also available in the links section):

https://earth.google.com/earth/d/1KVPHVNyIJ8UTwKCMLtLQdKn9XVuqPgUF?usp=sharing

TO UPDATE ANY INFORMATION related to Glenwood Cemetery and the profiles contained here, please contact the City of Huntsville, Alabama, Cemetery Director at 256-427-5730 or MapleHill@HuntsvilleAL.gov. Donations for the upkeep of the family headstones and fencing will be gladly accepted.

Huntsville was the first town incorporated in Alabama. The early cotton economy of North Alabama centered on Huntsville, and attracted planters and speculators from Georgia, Virginia, and beyond. The city served as the temporary first capital of Alabama and was of strategic importance during the Civil War. The first enslaved African Americans arrived in Madison County in 1809, the same year that public lands were sold in the area. The 1821 Census showed approximately 8,650 white adults and approximately 4,860 enslaved African Americans. The 1860 census showed a white population of 11,686 with an enslaved population of 14,573. The cultural leaders of both races often shared the same last names, with the formerly enslaved using the last name of their former plantation owners. 

Glenwood is the oldest intact African American cemetery in Huntsville. Glenwood is the successor to Georgia Cemetery, which opened in 1818, and was the first burial ground in the city. Portions of the Huntsville Hospital complex occupy the land formally used by Georgia Cemetery, located approximately a mile and a half to the southeast of Glenwood. The Georgia Cemetery held the graves of both African Americans and white settlers, but the area was marshy and prone to flooding. By 1820 Maple Hill Cemetery was established approximately a mile east of downtown Huntsville, and was reserved for white residents of Huntsville, leaving the Georgia Cemetery for exclusive use by the African American community. After the Civil War the neighborhood surrounding Georgia became predominately African American. 

By 1870, Georgia Cemetery was becoming full, with approximately 2,000 graves. The city of Huntsville decided a new graveyard was needed, and ten acres of land was purchased in the county in 1870. Some members of the African American community have indicated that emancipated blacks had no desire to be buried in what was known as a slave cemetery. The land was from the Benjamin W. Blake estate (originally part of the John Brahan Plantation), and additional acreage was added in 1875 from the W. W. Darwin family. Originally called simply the “colored cemetery,” it was renamed Glenwood at the May 9, 1901 meeting of city council. The Georgia Cemetery was officially closed the same year. 

In 1925, the land, privately owned, was given to Huntsville Hospital. Although the deed specifies that “the Colored Cemetery, would be … kept up by [Huntsville Hospital, Incorporated]” Huntsville Hospital buildings are now on the site, which had become a parking lot by the 1940s. There is no evidence that the majority of those interred were moved to Glenwood Cemetery. In 2021, Huntsville Hospital, at the request of Mrs. Ollye Conley, contracted with Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research to use ground-penetrating radar at Glenwood Cemetery. Research identified 27 unmarked graves in an unmarked area but found no mass interments, indicating many from Georgia Cemetery likely remain under the hospital parking lot.

Municipal African American cemeteries that were created as municipal cemeteries (not those originally owned by church or benevolent associations, and later transferred to municipal ownership) appear to be quite uncommon. In discussions with the state historic preservation offices in 14 states, less than a dozen other examples were confirmed. Most African American cemeteries appear to have originated as church cemeteries, were created by benevolent or fraternal organizations, or in some cases were simply dedicated African American sections of larger municipal graveyards. There seem to have been some unique factors leading to Glenwood’s creation. First, there are no church affiliated graveyards in Huntsville. Records could not be located explaining the absence of such graveyards, but it is clear from the earliest point of settlement in 1818, the city always had a municipal graveyard. The Georgia Cemetery was not originally planned specifically for African Americans. It was only converted into a completely segregated cemetery after its site was deemed undesirable for white burials. At that point it was turned over to the African American community, but its municipal ownership was well established. This foundation was perhaps key in the natural extension of creating Glenwood for the African American cemetery once the Georgia Cemetery was filled. 

It is also important to note that the creation of Glenwood occurred during the Reconstruction period in Alabama (1867-1874), when African Americans had secured voting rights, and Huntsville was one of three cities in Alabama to have Freedmen’s courts, where African Americans could secure a fair trial. African Americans Daniel S. Brandon, H. C. Binford, Sr. and Burgess Scruggs all served as aldermen (Brandon was elected twice to the position) and are buried at Glenwood. The passage of Alabama’s 1901 constitution, created in part to codify white supremacy by disfranchising African Americans, altered the political landscape of the state. 

Historic information on the cemetery is scant. One period news article in the local African American press wrote: “The resting place of our dead should receive our attention and their memory be respected by keeping the cemetery neat and tidy. If costly tombstones and monuments do not mark the graves the well-kept sodding and shrubs show the love and devotion just as well.”

In 1940 the cemetery was beautified as part of a larger Works Progress Administration outreach, within the Professional and Service Division projects of the WPA. The local newspaper listed driveways covered with stone, banks sodded, shrubbery planted, and a brick entrance added. At that time the cemetery was described as having 9.6 acres. Glenwood, and Maple Hill, both had sextons. The sextons were municipal employees charged with overseeing operations and maintenance of the cemeteries. Glenwood had its own sextons from 1879 through 1947. At that time the sexton positions of Glenwood and Maple Hill (the cemetery reserved for whites) were combined. 

In 1948 a group of funeral home directors asked the city to improve the cemetery, particularly the road from Clinton Avenue to the cemetery, which was in dire need of repairs. The group also requested the filling of graves and a general cleaning. Also discussed were the older sextons (cemetery caretakers) who were ready to retire, and the need for the city to hire new sextons. In the fall of 1948 the city decided to standardize grave permits for the city, and required that permits for opening and closing graves could only be issued through the clerk’s office, the same process used at Maple Hill Cemetery. The same newspaper article mentioned plans to enlarge and beautify the cemetery. However, the city felt that Glenwood was reaching its capacity and started searching for a new location for an African American cemetery about this time. In 1957 the city purchased a 15-acre cemetery, likely the old Brandontown African American Cemetery. Although the city had purchased a new African American Cemetery, Glenwood continued to be used, and is still available for family burials. 

Alabama Bicentennial African American Heritage Committee. “The Future Emerges from the Past,” Pelham, Alabama: Whitman Publishing Company, 2019. 

Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, “Glenwood Cemetery,” Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, Alabama Register of Historic Places.

Caroline T. Swope, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Application for Glenwood Cemetery, 25 Sep 2022.

Glenwood Cemetery Files, Cemetery Department, City of Huntsville, Alabama.

Glenwood Cemetery and Georgia Cemetery Files, Special Collections, Huntsville Public Library, Downtown Branch, Huntsville, Alabama.

Jeffreys, Leslie, “Forgotten Souls, the Story Huntsville Doesn’t Want to Talk About.” Old Huntsville History and Stories of the Tennessee Valley, vol. 85, pg. 2-9.

Kazek, Kelly, “Are there 9,000 unmarked graves in Huntsville slave cemetery? Historians try to find out,” https://www.al.com/living/2015/07/are_there_9000_unmarked_graves.html, July 28, 2015, updated January 13, 2019. Accessed 05 Dec 2024.

Kazek, Kelly, “Historians dig deeper to uncover stores of unmarked slave graves,” Huntsville Times, July 29, 2015, pg. 1 and 4.

Robb, Frances Osborn. “Guide Information on Blacks in Huntsville, 1805-1820.” Unpublished manuscript located in the City of Huntsville files on Glenwood Cemetery. 

Tennessee Valley Archeological Research. “A Ground Penetrating Radar Survey at Glenwood Cemetery, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama,” June, 2021. 

“The Cemetery,” Huntsville Gazette, 1881. Found in the Glenwood Cemetery Files, Cemetery Department, City of Huntsville, Alabama.