Durham Reporter

Members of the Durham community have come together to try and preserve a historical African  American burial site.

According to CBS 17 News, the Friends of Geer Cemetery (FoGC) was started in 2003 by people in the Durham community and descendants of those buried there. The group does work to maintain and restore the site.

"The act of maintaining, preserving and protecting the cemetery makes the space visible and available to the community. For me personally, I don’t have family buried here, but the people that are buried here represent my African American heritage," FoGC president Debra Taylor Gonzales-Garcia told CBS News in the Dec. 27 article. "This cemetery started because there was a need for a community cemetery for African Americans." 

Dating back to 1877, Geer Cemetery is one of Durham’s first burial grounds for African Americans. The site consists of hundreds of markers and tombstones off of Colonial Street. The last documented burial at the site was was in 1945.

Board member Carissa Trotta told CBS News that the group recently received an anonymous donation to help fund a non-invasive ground penetrating survey to find undiscovered burials. The survey began along the U-shaped path through the cemetery in May. 

"We want to be able to respect the space by getting input from the descendants about how this space should be restored. So, we wanted to learn about every aspect that we could," Trotta said. "There were 12 possible grave sites that fall along the edges of this path. We know that many of them are only now about a foot to a foot and a half under the earth, the tops of those shafts."

“These people built Durham. They need to have their stories told," Trotta said.

Visitors can find more information about the Friends of Geer Cemetery at the group's website.