At its November 10 meeting, the Springwood Cemetery Advisory Committee began shaping a permanent tribute to the hundreds of unmarked graves uncovered in Section V of the historic Springwood Cemetery. The graves, located at the corner of Academy and Church streets in downtown Greenville, were identified by a ground‑penetrating radar survey in August that revealed 572 burial sites dating back to around 1865 and later.
Memorial design under consideration
Committee members discussed a large stone memorial surrounded by a modest garden featuring daffodils and yucca – a plant traditionally used to mark African American graves. The design will be refined at the committee’s next meeting in January, and a QR code is being considered for the monument to link visitors to a website that will share information as the identities of those buried become known.
Volunteer effort and ongoing research
Since the discovery, volunteers have placed 617 metal disc markers on the graves and on other markers with illegible inscriptions. The committee also plans to use ground‑penetrating radar to scan the area slated for a future columbarium, ensuring no additional burial sites are disturbed.
Two committee members recently consulted with officials from Clemson University’s Woodland Cemetery, which underwent extensive memorial improvements after uncovering its own unmarked graves in 2020. “They were terrific and just gave us good practical tips, like make sure there’s a way to get oral history,” said Edward Stall, a committee member. “We don’t know who these people are, but families might remember, and we want to be able to gather that and get stories and names and make the community part of it.”
Historical context
Section V was originally part of the Elford Cemetery, serving as a potter’s field for formerly enslaved African Americans, impoverished sharecroppers and others who could not afford formal funerals. The city believes the unmarked graves date from the immediate post‑Civil War era onward, though the specific identities of those interred remain unknown.
Parallel research is underway at Greenville’s Richland Cemetery, where the nonprofit Leatherwood MATTERS is working to recover historical records and build an online platform to share information about those buried in the city’s first African American cemetery. Once completed, the platform could serve as a model for documenting the Springwood graves.
Next steps
The advisory committee expects a final survey of a remaining portion of Section V, which may contain an additional 30 to 50 unmarked graves, to be conducted in the near future. Findings from that survey will inform the final layout of the memorial and any further preservation actions.
By involving community volunteers, academic partners, and local historians, Greenville aims to honor the memory of those who lived and died in hardship, ensuring their stories are preserved for future generations.
Original reporting: Greenville Journal — read the source article.
