Visiting Mount Auburn Cemetery, Baltimore's "City of Dead for Colored People," and the graves of Joseph Gans and W. Ashbie Hawkins - Entrepreneur Generations

If you've been down to the Cherry Hill area, you may have driven by the historic Mount Auburn Cemetery, which sits directly off of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and Annapolis Road, in the area between Westport, Cherry Hill, and Lakeland neighborhoods.

Founded in 1872, Mount Auburn Cemetery is a National Historic Site. The sign outside the fence reads, "Oldest cemetery for African Americans in Baltimore, Founded in 1872 by Reverend James Peck, Pastor, and Trustees of Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Dating to 1787, the congregation served the community and was influential in the freedom movement of the 19th century and the civil rights movement of the 20th. Here rests former slaves, clergy, professionals, business owners, and thousands of African American families." It was called 'City of Dead for Colored People" when created.

With this sort of storied history, it's sad to report that I've yet to visit a cemetery in such despair as this one. Unmowed grass and weeds tower over the headstones, many of which are broken or sunk into the ground. At some parts of the 34-acre cemetery, caskets have raised to the surface; in others, headstones are submerged far below the surface. Parts of the grounds are too treacherous to walk, while the driving path is grown over at several points.

This is not new and, in fact, friends tell me it has been in much worse shape than it is now; indeed, at least it is open to the public now. A website, Resurrecting Mount Auburn Cemetery, was created by the Maryland State Archives and had a goal of documenting the cemetery, but it appears the project has stalled, as the website has not been updated since August 2014. The website cites "decades of neglect," though as recently as 2013, people have been buried there. Back in 2012, there was a program that brought inmates into the cemetery to clean and restore the cemetery. I can't find anything about whether the program is still happening; all of the media reports (here's another article) are from May 2012.

I tried to find more information about why this cemetery exists in this dilapidated state. Commenters on the cemetery's Facebook page and Google Reviews lament about the cemetery's disrepair and their inability to find loved ones. One commenter on Facebook said that the cemetery's owner's son has not been keeping up with the maintenance of the cemetery, which costs upwards of $25,000 a year on average for cemeteries, but it seems there has been decades of neglect, not just years. Mount Auburn Cemetery needs more than upkeep; it needs a restoration. Another commenter posted a photograph (found at the bottom of this entry) of what he says is human remains of a jaw bone and molar in freshly turned dirt. It's clear that the community knows the upkeep of this cemetery should be a priority, but I couldn't find any news about current programs of restoration. Many commenters say that this would have never happened to a white cemetery of such prominence, and they're probably right.

On our visit (August 18, 2016), we began on the west side of the cemetery, and, we were shocked and dismayed about all the disrepair, and also wondered aloud how to even begin the cleanup. Simply mowing would be difficult because it's hard to see many of the tombstones. As we headed over to the east side of the cemetery, however, we were pleased to see four workers trudging away with the mowing. I didn't read about the inmate program until after my visit, but I would be a bit surprised if the woman I spoke with -- whose voice and demeanor recalled the serenity of Tracy Chapman -- was part of this program. Still, I wondered who they were employed by: the Sharp Street Church? I asked her for the location of a specific headstone, and she advised me to call the church (I did, and no answer).

I ended up finding my desired headstone, that of William Ashbie Hawkins (1862-1941), who I learned about both from Antero Pietila's Not In My Neighborhood (my review here) and from UB's Divided Baltimore class last year. In 1910, he bought 1834 McCulloh, which at the time was a white neighborhood. His purchase set of a firestorm of racist city council policies that helped create the hyper-segregated Baltimore that we see today. Baltimore was so "good" at segregation that other city councils asked Baltimore's advice about how to go about it. Hawkins was a prominent Civil Rights attorney, even arguing in front of the Supreme Court (representing the NAACP) and later became the first Black person to run for Senate in Maryland. Below I have some photographs of the grave as well as directions about how to find it. (I wrote a little bit more about W. Ashbie Hawkins here.)

The other most interesting grave for me was Joseph Gans (1876-1910), the first African American boxing champion in history; in fact, he was the first African American champion of any sport. However, he has been all but forgotten by history. A man named Kevin Grace has been working to resurrect Gans' memory for years; you can see his videos taken at the cemetery here and here (that last one is from just a few days before we visited), as well as an 8-minute short called "The Pugilist" he created that you can find here. Gans was from Baltimore, and was known for his scientific fighting method; he was a small guy (never weighed more than 135 lbs) but was able to use specific techniques to beat guys much bigger than him, including a record 42-round fight on Labor Day in 1906. Gans died young, at age 35 of tuberculosis, and had a huge funeral, but destruction of his memory has been happening for decades; even H.L. Mencken wrote in 1943, "It always amazes me how easily men of the highest talents and eminence can be forgotten in this careless world. Some years ago I heard talk of raising a monument to Joe... but the scheme faded out." Indeed, there is no statue or monument to Joe Gans, and both his childhood home and the hotel he founded have been razed. Thankfully, his gravesite was restored in 2005 by the Maryland branch of the Veteran Boxers Association, and it's now the nicest grave in the cemetery, located just a few feet from its entrance.

There are a few other notable internments here. One of the most prominent black lawyers in Baltimore, Roy S. Bond, has a beautiful and well-preserved marker on the east side of the cemetery. Lillian Mae Carol Jackson was a prominent Civil Rights activist who brought the NAACP to Baltimore; her home at 1320 Eutaw Place was supposed to be re-opened as a museum in June 2016 but I don't know if it has; we couldn't find her grave. Other notable internments that we couldn't find include: Joseph "Tunnel Joe" Holmes (1912-1973), who dug his way to freedom with a spoon from the Maryland Penitentiary; John H. Murphy (1841-1922), founder of the African-American newspaper The Afro; Dr. Louise Young (1907-1997), the first African-American woman to practice medicine in Maryland; and her father, Howard Young, the first African-American pharmacist in Maryland.

Below are some shots from August 18. Hopefully a force of community activists or politicians and financial support will coalesce to fix up this monument to the past and honor those who are buried here.

The grave of Joseph Gans, restored in 2005 by the Veteran Boxers Association. The decorations were likely placed there by Kevin Grace, the man who is striving to maintain Gans' legacy.

Joseph Gans.

Headstone for William Ashbie Hawkins, the man who bought a house on a white block in 1910; the purchase compelled the racist City Council to start making segregation laws for Baltimore City.

His grave faces the east side of the cemetery.

W. Ashbie Hawkins is buried under the same headstone as his parents, Robert Hawkins (1839-1891) and Susan Hawkins (1838-1902). Robert was born into slavery and later became a Reverend. It appears that after their son William died in 1941, that they inscribed his information on the back of this headstone and buried him with his parents.

W. Ashbie Hawkins is buried in the "Riverview" section of the cemetery. If you see my blue SUV up ahead, that's where's located, on the right.

There are 16 Mitchells buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery

W. Ashbie Hawkins

A shot that shows how uneven the headstones are as they have settled into the soil.

Virginia Holmes (1931-1969) has a broken headstone.

I thought this headstone was especially sweet. No other information except that Iran and Marion Owens "Whom Death Could Not Part 1970". 

This casket seems like it's came to the surface.

Might be the oldest grave I saw. Julia A. Shppard died in 1883. Since the cemetery was founded in 1872, there are many people older than this buried here, though.

A shot of the long grass.

This part of the cemetery was probably the least kept part. This is a meadow with several graves in it, plus a sinkhole. It was uncertain how many are here and it was pretty much impossible to even walk through (holes, wet, long grass).

Mary.

I wonder what they were trying to catch? A raccoon?

Attorney Roy S. Bond, who specialized in divorces in the 1940s. He was probably the most successful black lawyer of that decade in Baltimore. I loved his inscription: Humanitarian, Churchman, Fraternal Leader, Benefactor to Many, Especially His Alma Mater, Howard University."

Historical Marker.

I wanted so bad to cut these weed trees but didn't have my clippers.

A still-active gravesite. 

Toppled-over headstones.

from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/2b9InHB Visiting Mount Auburn Cemetery, Baltimore's "City of Dead for Colored People," and the graves of Joseph Gans and W. Ashbie Hawkins - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet