ATLANTA — A historic cemetery that is the last trace of an African-American community founded by former slaves is at the center of a legal battle between a developer and a woman whose grandparents and uncle are buried there.
ATLANTA — A historic cemetery that is the last trace of an African-American community founded by former slaves is at the center of a legal battle between a developer and a woman whose grandparents and uncle are buried there. A hearing is scheduled on the issue Tuesday afternoon. A lawsuit has been filed in Fulton County Superior Court on behalf of Elon Butts Osby seeking to stop Brandon Marshall from removing Mt. Olive Cemetery, which was once part of Macedonia Park. The area was a Black community first settled by former slaves before becoming a formal subdivision in the 1920s. During the mid-1900s, the neighborhood was razed to make way for a public park, originally named for William Bagley, Osby’s grandfather. Marshall acquired the property after Fulton County assessed taxes against the cemetery. The property was sold at auction when the taxes went unpaid. Christine McCauley of the Buckhead Heritage Society said preserving the cemetery is important to telling the entire history of Buckhead, an affluent, mostly white north Atlanta neighborhood. "Buckhead has been shaped by lots of different hands," McCauley said. "Nobody’s role in it is more important than the other. This really is the very last remnant of that community, and it’s still in the consciousness of a lot of folks." D.L. Henderson, a preservationist and genealogist who studies Black cemeteries, said they may sometimes lack recognition because they look different from traditional places of burial. "African-American cemeteries in wooded areas are not necessarily unkempt or uncared for," Henderson said. "It’s not going to look like a landscaped, Euro-style cemetery, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a sacred place." ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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