The Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project team and the Lemon Project team stand together in front of the Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved at William & Mary in Virginia. Photo courtesy of the Lemon Project.
On October 30-November 2, 2022, the Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground team traveled to the College of William & Mary (W&M) to meet with the Lemon Project team and their community partners for nearly a week’s exchange of ideas on both respective historic preservation projects. The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation works to reckon with the College of W&M’s more than 300-year- old past concerning African Americans, from the enslavement era to the contemporary university. The multifaceted project is named for Lemon, an enslaved man who was owned by W&M. According to their mission statement, “The Lemon Project builds bridges between William & Mary and African American communities through research, programming, and supporting students, faculty, and staff.”
Sign for Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved at the College of William & Mary.
Upon arrival, the cemetery team met with community organizations and student researchers over dinner on campus to learn about the different ways of engagement they use to serve the public locally. Earlier the following day was a historical campus tour of W&M. The Clemson team visited the Wren Building (the nation’s oldest academic building), Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved, and the Sankofa Seed statue dedicated to the first Black students to integrate the school. The focus later during the same day was on historic preservation as the cemetery team visited the Bray School, the First Baptist Church Archaeological site in Colonial Williamsburg, the Historically Black History exhibit at Bruton Heights School, and Oak Grove Baptist Church.
View of the Hearth Memorial at night.Close-up view of names of enslaved people memorialized at the Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved, including Lemon.The “Sankofa Seed” statue created by Steve Prince to honor the first three African American students in residence at William and Mary.
A visit to special collections in the library occupied the first part of the final day. The cemetery team examined early African American artifacts about W&M, learned about oral history projects, and toured the “Strollin” exhibit, highlighting Black Greek Letter Organization history at the college. The Community Quilt Project capped off the second half of the last day, where members of the cemetery team contributed to the storied year-long endeavor. The Woodland Cemetery team would like to thank Dr. Jody Allen, Dr. Jajuan Johnson, and Dr. Sarah Thomas for hosting this fruitful exchange.
In this issue we provide information about the research symposium keynote speaker Kamau Sadiki of Diving with a Purpose, update the public on Woodland Cemetery, explain the contributions that Carrel Cowan-Ricks put toward the African American Burial Ground, provide research and community engagement updates, and highlight some upcoming local events.
The Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project seeks to tell the stories of the known and previously unknown burials located in Woodland Cemetery on the Clemson University campus. Through research and community engagement we intend to uncover as much as we can about this historic space and to properly commemorate all who are buried here.
On August 18th, 2022, Velma Fann, historian for New South Associates, met with descendant communities within Sirrine Hall at Clemson University to discuss ideas for memorialization at Woodland Cemetery. Based in Columbia, South Carolina, with additional offices in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, New South Associates is a women-owned small business that provides cultural resource consulting services. Their work with history and archeology includes contextualizing cemeteries, highways, and plantations throughout the southeast. Working within federal and state laws parameters, New South Associates makes a concerted effort to involve local community members in their historic preservation process.
Fifteen members of the local descendant community brainstormed ideas for what Woodland Cemetery’s memorial to African Americans buried there could encompass. The responses varied between the two sessions with New South as one group discussed different ideas from 3-5 PM and another from 5-7 PM. The first group was composed of mainly Black residents from Clemson and Seneca. They discussed how to incorporate visual and auditory elements, such as light and the sound of the wind, to commemorate people of African descent who are buried in the cemetery. The second group was primarily composed of Clemson, Anderson, and Pendleton Black descendants. Their approach to a memorial was more steeped in spirituality and tranquility through the creation of a peaceful place on campus to reflect. This initial meeting was the first of a few planned with New South as the Pathways Project for the cemetery is set to begin in January 2023.
Dr. Mandi Barnard has continued to coordinate research for the team for the preservation phase of our project. She is currently examining the papers of Clinton Calhoun Lemon and Dr. Rupert Fike to gain an understanding of how college athletics shaped development around Cemetery Hill.
Aerial view of Clemson Memorial Stadium and Clemson College Campus, circa Fall 1960, Series 100, Clemson University Historical Images, Clem- son University Libraries.
Dr. Sara Collini has continued to research the full impact of Clemson Athletics on Cemetery Hill and the surrounding landscape, including the construction and expansion of parking lots and paving of roads surrounding Memorial Stadium. She has also been working with the team on reading the meeting minutes and annual reports of the Board of Trustees from 1888 to the present. The team is noting all mentions of the cemetery and surrounding landscape from these records, along with all relevant collections in the campus archives, and putting together a comprehensive historical timeline.
Dr. Rhondda R. Thomas has been assisting with research in the archives regarding the documentation of the history of the cemetery. She has also continued to learn more about the Tom Littlejohn housing project that Clemson originally designed for Black wage workers. Additionally, she is coordinating an effort to develop a database of memorials universities have established to honor enslaved laborers and Black employees.
On Monday, July 18, 2022, Burt Pinnock, FAIA, NOMA, Principal for Baskervill Architects, visited Clemson University to provide a consultation regarding the process for developing a memorial for Woodland Cemetery and the African American Burial Ground. Mainly based in Virginia, Baskervill’s architectural work is community-driven in its commemoration of people and places. These projects include “Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved” at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, “Reconciliation Plaza and the Richmond Slave Trail” in downtown Richmond, Virginia, and “the Twin Memorials” at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Within his presentation, Mr. Pinnock emphasized including descendant communities in the room for decision-making, determing what an undisputed truth is among people with differing perspectives, and surveying what communities want in memorialization. The remainder of his visit included a “Call My Name” tour facilitated by Dr. Thomas, a Woodland Cemetery tour from the cemetery team, a visit to the Clemson Area African American Museum, and a tour of the Hopewell Plantation House with Clemson University Historian Dr. Otis Pickett, Sr.
Community Engagement Update
Marquise Drayton has been steady in his outreach efforts as the new Community Engagement Assistant. On July 21 and 28, 2022, he volunteered with the Blue Ridge Community Center in Seneca, SC, for their summer reading program. Geared towards rising third- and seventh- graders, this initiative is designed to curb the learning loss for students during the summer break.
On July 22, Drayton met with Seneca City Museum leaders Nick McKinney, Director of the Lunney Museum, and Shelby Henderson, Founding Director of the Bertha Lee Strickland Museum and executive director of the City of Seneca’s Department of Arts, History, and Culture. They informed him about the local history of Oconee County, the demographic makeup of the city in comparison to the county, and influential people to contact concerning oral history. After speaking with Drayton in City Hall, they led him on a tour of Mountain View Cemetery and then to Oak Grove Cemetery, a historically Black cemetery. Both are owned by the City of Seneca. Within each, he could see how challenges with historic preservation and remembrance have persisted not only at Clemson University’s cemetery but in neighboring towns.
On July 10, 2022, the cemetery team led free drop-in tours at Woodland Cemetery from 12pm to 4pm. It was a decent turnout of 17 people, including a community group known as “Outdoor Afro” who have an interest in education, conservation, and nature.
We want to thank Marissa Davis for contributing to the Woodland Cemetery Project during the past two years. She will leave the project in early August as her time in the Clemson History M.A. program is ending. Her next step is to obtain a master’s degree in library and information science and work towards becoming an archivist.
Dr. Rhondda R. Thomas has reached out to her counterparts at other universities to learn more about community engagement practices, particularly in the development of preservation plans and memorials. She is also working closely with community partners in the cities of Seneca and Clemson on the development of a proposal for a Black Heritage Trail that shares the history of people of African descent on campus and in local communities.
Dr. Mandi Barnard has been coordinating the Cemetery Team’s archival research objectives at Clemson Special Collections Library as we enter the preservation phase of our project. Dr. Barnard has identified collections and topics of interest to guide the Team’s summer research agenda. She has also been in the archives working through these materials to aid in the creation of a preservation plan for the cemetery.
Dr. Sara Collini, with the help of our Spring 2022 undergraduate research assistants Nolly Swan and Lucas DeBenedetti, has completed the visual history of the cemetery in ArcGIS. It will be publicly available soon. She has also been researching mentions of the cemetery in the collections of Student Affairs and the Athletic Department in the campus archives. She is investigating the full impact of Memorial Stadium construction projects on Cemetery Hill. Ground work, including grading and sloping of the land, occurred near the northern edge of the cemetery in the late 1950s, during a seating expansion project, and in the late 1970s for the construction of the south upper deck and new Press Road. In 1980, part of the eastern area of Cemetery Hill near the entrance on Williamson Road was leveled for a new IPTAY parking lot.
Dr. Rhondda Thomas has been investigating changes in the geographical landscape within Woodland Cemetery from the establishment of the college until the 1960s. She has also been researching the forced movement of Black wage workers into segregated neighborhoods on and off campus during this time. Dr. Thomas, Marjorie Campbell, project manager, and Shelby Henderson, member of the community engagement council, have also been interviewing candidates for a new genealogist position with the cemetery team who will help document family histories of people buried in modern graves in the cemetery and learn more about Black people who could be buried in unmarked graves in the African American Burial Ground.
In June, the cemetery team visited sites of historic plantations and cemeteries in the Experimental Forest on the Clemson University campus to learn more about the interconnected history of plantations in the area.
Community Engagement Update
Marquise Drayton will be joining the project team on July 11, 2022 as our new Community Engagement Assistant. Born and raised in Georgetown, SC, he’s coming here from Charlotte, NC. His research interests include slave narratives, the Civil Rights Movement, the post- 1865 South, and Black students’ integration efforts at primarily white higher education institutions, like Clemson. Drayton earned his BA in African American Studies from UNC- Chapel Hill and his MA in History from Clemson University. He enjoys traveling, going to the movies, and watching sports. The project team is excited about the experience and enthusiasm that Drayton will bring to the project. Dr. Brian Stack has stepped off the project to begin a new job as a community college history instructor in Washington State.
Representatives from the cemetery project’s research and community engagement teams, as well as from the Legacy Council, attended Juneteenth celebrations in Clemson, Seneca, and Anderson on Saturday, June 18, 2022. This was the first time that the cemetery project was represented in all three cities at the same time. We shared information about the cemetery project and joined our local communities in celebrating this important day. The team also donated cemetery brochures and copies of Dr. Rhondda Thomas’s book Call My Name, Clemson to the Juneteenth MegaFest in Greenville, South Carolina. We will be working with local communities to plan a program for Juneteenth on the Clemson University campus next year.
Dr. Rhondda Thomas and Sally Mauldin continue to give cemetery tours to small groups. Dr. Thomas also met with the Clemson University’s Statewide Gravesite Committee to discuss community engagement initiatives for all burial grounds located on land owned by Clemson. Additionally, the group will be exploring opportunities for collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Archives and History to develop cemetery preservation and memorialization resources for the public.
Dr. Mandi Barnard has conducted ongoing research for Andrew Pickens “A.P.” Calhoun and Business Manager James C. Littlejohn. She has sought manuscript records for A.P. and his family, and is currently working with a genealogist in Alabama to obtain deeds of sale for A.P.’s properties there, and to see if any inventories of enslaved persons exist associated with those sales. This research will help the team determine which enslaved individuals were moved between A.P.’s Marengo properties and Fort Hill, when, and what impact enslavement had on health and mental wellbeing by reconstructing epidemiological data documented by A.P.’s overseer, A. Walker, in Alabama. His manuscripts shed light on antebellum cotton markets, finance, banking, and lines of credit, as well as highlighting political shifts in the South in the decade prior to secession and civil war. Dr. Barnard’s continuing research on James C. Littlejohn is aimed at producing a biography of Littlejohn’s contributions to Clemson and his role in decision making at Woodland Cemetery during his lifetime. Further, his collection contains a broad base of primary documents that lay out the history of Clemson and the people who operated it, and major events in its first 60 years of operation. This information can help reconstruct a timeline of events at Woodland Cemetery and changes to the landscape as the campus expanded.
“Map of Clemson College Bottom Lands Showing Dike, Seneca River, and Other Surroundings,” ca. 1903, Survey by P.T. Brodie and S.W. Reaves. Map provided by Clemson University Facilities.
Dr. Sara Collini is finishing up the visual history of the cemetery for the project website. Historical maps of the cemetery and Clemson campus will be available to view, including the earliest known map depicting Cemetery Hill from ca. 1903. Aerial photographs taken of campus will also be available to explore, from the earliest one taken in 1938 before Memorial Stadium was built to the present day. Viewers will be able to compare and contrast the maps and photos of the cemetery over time, including the impact of stadium construction and the impact of the Hartwell Dam project in the 1960s.
Dr. Rhondda Thomas traveled to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia to research and document the deaths of convicted laborers at the Clemson College worksite between 1890 and 1915. She learned that thirteen convicted laborers died on campus and are believed to have been buried on the west side of Cemetery Hill. Dr. Thomas is also investigating ideas for memorial designs and preparing for the launch of the cemetery project’s oral history initiative this summer.
Community Engagement Updates
Local businesses and community members mingle at the Black Business Expo at the Littlejohn Community Center. Photograph credit Brian Stack.
On Saturday May 21, 2022 we held a Black Business Expo at the Littlejohn Community Center in Clemson, SC. More than 20 local Black-owned businesses were on site selling goods and promoting their businesses. Special thanks to the Clemson division of the South Carolina Small Business Development Centers for organizing an entrepreneurship panel and to for the love of community for their help planning the event and helping at the Expo. We plan to hold another expo in Spring 2023!
Weekly cemetery tours ended in May. Since the beginning of 2022, over 500 people have taken a tour. In May, we gave tours to a variety of groups, including faculty from the Department of Bioengineering and students and faculty from Furman University who are in a class on the legacies of slavery at universities. Dr. Rhondda Thomas and Sally Mauldin have also continued to provide cemetery tours for families associated with modern burials of Clemson employees and their families.
We will have limited cemetery tours available over the summer. The only scheduled tours for the summer are on Sunday, July 10, 2022 between 12:00pm and 4:00pm on the hour. Register here. These tours will be open to both individuals and groups. If you would like to request a cemetery tour at another date and time please email bestack@clemson.edu.
White flag with a gold ribbon denoting an unmarked grave in Woodland Cemetery.
The Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project seeks to tell the stories of the known and previously unknown burials located in Woodland Cemetery on the Clemson University campus. Through research and community engagement we intend to uncover as much as we can about this historic space and to properly commemorate all who are buried here. Monthly updates on research and community engagement, as well as the Cemetery History Series, are featured in our Project Newsletter.
Research Update for May 2022
Dr. Mandi Barnard is researching Andrew Pickens “A.P.” Calhoun using his manuscript collections from the South Caroliniana Archive and speeches he gave at commercial and agricultural society meetings in the 1850s. She is also working with an Alabama genealogist to track down deeds of sale for A.P.’s plantations there.
Dr. Sara Collini is working on the visual history of the cemetery with our undergraduate research assistants, Nolly Swan and Lucas DeBenedetti. We are using maps and photographs of the cemetery and surrounding landscape to show the history of the area and how it has changed from the 1700s to the present day. The visual history features several “Before and After” photographs at pivotal moments in the cemetery’s history, as well as interactive maps and image galleries. The visual history will be made available to the public along with our website re-design later in 2022.
(L) 1956 Aerial Photograph of Clemson Campus (R) 1963 Aerial Photograph of Clemson Campus | Clemson University Facilities
Marissa Davis, the Graduate Research Assistant for the project, is continuing her search for how those enslaved at Fort Hill gained access to the house. She wants to find out the original layout of the property. To do so, she will visit the Deeds Offices in Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties to search for the bill of sale between the Calhouns and the McElhennys. This document details the ownership changes for Clergy Hall, which was what the house was known as before it became Fort Hill. Other members of the team plan to go with her to the offices as their projects also are impacted by what might be found in the bill of sale.
Dr. Rhondda Thomas has been finalizing the application for the team’s oral history project with Clemson’s Institutional Review Board, meeting with the project’s preservation plan subcommitee as we move into the next phase of the cemetery project, and encouraging research collaborations between Clemson professors and community partners, including research for the African American local historical site database project that will include the African American Burial Ground in Woodland Cemetery. She also coordinated the development of the theme and format for the second annual research symposium to be held October 24-25 in the Hendrix Center at Clemson.
Community Engagement Update for May 2022
Dr. Brian Stack been volunteering with several organizations in the Upstate to promote Black history and the cemetery project. He volunteered at the 2022 Men of Color Summit in Greenville, South Carolina, is helping the city of Clemson plan its Juneteenth celebration, and has been attending events for “Save the Alley,” a grassroots effort to prevent the displacement of an African American community in Central, South Carolina.
A group on campus takes a tour of the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery.
The project team has also been continuing to give cemetery tours, which will run until mid-May. This semester we have had over 500 people attend tours and learn about the space. The tour was recently revamped to include new information discovered in the last year of research for this project. If you have not yet taken a cemetery tour, or if it has been a long time since you took one, please consider joining us.
A group walks to the Calhoun Family Plot on the tour of the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery.
Our undergraduate community engagement assistant, Aundrea Gibbons, has been expanding the reach of our Instagram account. She also created a story about Dr. Ayana Flewellen that will soon be featured on our Instagram. Dr. Flewellen gave the keynote lecture on Carrel Cowan-Ricks Recognition Day.
Dr. Rhondda Thomas joined Trustee David Dukes and Sally Mauldin in conducting informational sessions via Zoom about the cemetery for Clemson employees and retirees. She and Angela Agard, director of the Clemson Area African American Museum, are developing a presentation titled “Uncovering, Preserving, Sharing and Celebrating local African American History” for the International Town and Gown Conference that will be held at Clemson University on June 7-9, 2022. Their presentation will explore how to recover, preserve, and tell stories about the many contributions of African Americans in building Clemson University and local communities, including those who are believed to be buried in unmarked graves in the African American Burial Ground in Woodland Cemetery. More information about the conference can be found here.
On August 18th, 2022, Velma Fann, historian for 
