When Chapel Hill resident Rebecca Clark took her friend Rosa McMaster Praylo to visit the grave site of Praylo's father she didn't expect that the marker would be in the wrong place.
Praylo's father was laid to rest in the corner of the segregated section. When led to a different grave the two realized that the mishap was caused by poor preservation of the cemetery especially the two black sections.
The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery across from Hooker fields is divided into six sections. White members of the community fill the first four sections. The two other sections hold black laborers and the University's slaves.
A short rock wall has segregated the groups since the late 18th century" when churches didn't have black cemeteries.
""The wall will always be there because that's history"" Clark said. I don't think they'll ever tear that down.""
In the 1950s the local black community fought to keep family members' resting spots. Clark said the town proposed to have all the blacks moved from University property to Carrboro" across the railroad tracks.
Clark said one newly elected black town official said then that he had never heard of anyone getting up out of their graves to interfere with anybody else on the other side of the rock wall so moving the blacks wouldn't make a difference.
Preservation of the segregated section's land and historical records has been inconsistent she said. Many headstones have been destroyed" which is what made it hard for Praylo to find her father's grave site.
""People came to me asking" 'Why don't you get the Negroes to get in there and clean up their family's grave?"'"" Clark said. ""And I said"" 'Ninety-five percent of these families that are here ... their families are dead.'""
But Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy said that the town has done a good job of protecting the cemetery and that it is in much better condition than it was five years ago.
""(There's) just less awareness for the people that go to the cemetery about what the stones in the black section represent" Foy said.
They can look like they're just stones instead of grave markers" which leads to greater disturbance.""
Clark agreed that the effort to preserve the cemetery is growing.
""They're trying to unify it" and they're doing a beautiful job. I just keep pushing for the upkeep and the beauty of the cemetery" she said.
A Chapel Hill Cemetery Advisory Board has been proposed, and the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill is looking to start a Friends of the Cemetery group to help with the site's upkeep.
That's what a cemetery symbolizes: a peace of mind" the history of death how we understand death and dying and a way to see the reflection of American culture by what cemeteries do" said Ernest Dollar, executive director for the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill.
For those who have family in there"" the upkeep and respecting their memory is very important.""
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