HIGH POINT, N.C. – A historical African American cemetery is getting the attention it deserves.

 

What You Need To Know


  • Crews at Oakwood Cemetery are surveying a section where officials say are unmarked graves

  • They're using a $3,200 grant from the North Carolina Historic Preservation committee to fund the project

  • They hope to have results by the end of the month

 

 

Crews at Oakwood Cemetery are surveying a section where officials say they could find hundreds of unmarked graves. The crews will use ground-penetrating radar to locate the graves.

One woman says it's important to gather the information to continue to spread black history.

“It lets us know that when the city was first founded we were here," said Phyllis Bridges, CEO of Yalik's African American Art & Culture Movement. "We were educators. We were business people. We were landowners. It's not like this just came up within the last few decades for this, we’ve had those leadership positions in the city that far back.”

The group is using a $3,200 grant from the North Carolina State Historic Preservation committee to fund the project.

A count of the unmarked graves is expected by the end of the month.