TO THE EDITOR:
The western section of the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery near Connor Residence Hall contains the remains of African Americans. They have a few gravestones and a tomb-table, but the largest area has either field stones or nothing at all. The Cemeteries Advisory Board and Preservation Chapel Hill sought to discover how many unmarked graves there are in the African-American section.
They found 361 unmarked graves. Preservation Chapel Hill Executive Director Cheri Szcodronski said, “Not only were these people excluded and forgotten in life but also in death.”
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier rests in the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. It is dedicated to American service members who died without their remains being identified.
Some people thought that the 361 African Americans buried without markers in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery should be honored in like manner. The Cemeteries Advisory Board has supervised the purchase and placement of a gravestone. It was installed in the cemetery on Feb. 4. The words engraved on our tombstone are very similar to those on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The words on our gravestone are:
HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY 361 AMERICAN PERSONS OF COLOR KNOWN BUT TO GOD.
Stanley Peele
Chapel Hill
