The Washtenaw County Historic Preservation Commission and the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County are restoring Ypsilanti Township’s Woodlawn Cemetery.
Hidden among overgrowth with most of its grave markers sunken beneath the earth lies the legacy of Pastor Gather Roberson Sr., who acquired land in Ypsilanti Township to be the county’s first and only Black cemetery.
By 1965, Woodlawn Cemetery was declared abandoned.
Debby Covington is the Chair of the Board for the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County. She says veterans who served from World War I to the Korean War are buried on site, and the community should do right to honor their legacy.
“We are literally restoring Black history by restoring gravesites and how those before us impacted the community.”
Covington says she and county officials created Black Memorial Restoration Day to be a companion to Memorial Day, where the community can remember Black veterans.
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