SOAL Life
My Grandfather
We buried my grandfather, Roger Kenton Williams in 1989. There was a military salute to honor his service as Chief Morale Officer, US Navy/Coast Guard WW2. My Grandpa said, he said he had eyes in the back of his bald head, so I better not try and do that (whatever it was) when he wasn’t looking ‘cause he’d see me anyways. He loved his trains. He had tracks that wove in and out of the walls in his basement. He had such a kindness, to him. He laughed good. He played cards. He loved technology. He was always taking photos and making videos on VHS and Beta Cassette of us coming to visit, us planting a tree, us standing around, my grandma giving a speech, my grandma walking down the street, and endless hours of trains coming in and out of trainyards or the basement walls. He built the idea in my mind about freedom trains running underground. He started the Psychology Department and became Vice-President of Morgan State University. He paid his way through college by playing the piano. He loved his boyhood Boy Scouts Troop, number 24, and funded a scholarship for boy scouts in his name. He played football and he ran track. He was fast, he trained with his best friend who ran in the Olympics. He wrote at least one copyrighted song.
When he was sent home from the hospital, I was the only one of my siblings that did not go. I did not see my grandpa that last time. It has been almost 32 years since I last saw him smile, but I will never forget it.
The Unburied Dead
On Thursday, June 24th, less than one month after Memorial Day, I unknowingly brought my nephew to bear witness to tattered flags laying in the dirt. My nephew and I visited Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery. We spent hours looking for my grandpa’s headstone.
What we found:
- Exposed Human Remains
- Graves Dug-Up
- Toppled and Damaged Headstones
- Collapsed graves
- Human Bones
- Wild Animals
- Grass and Shrubs
- Poison Ivy, Oak, and Sumac
- Overgrown grave markers
- A Scalp
- A Chewed Femur
- Unburied Bodies on the Ground
- Corpses in the grass
- My family left like that
Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy (SOAL)
I have spent the last 3 months organizing cleanups and raising awareness about this situation. The cemetery houses “influential and barrier-breaking people ,” including: Soldiers and Sailors, the Veterans of nearly every war, the former Slaves, who built our Nation, Black Newspaper publishers, 19th & 20th Century Medical Doctors, Opera Singers, School Board Presidents, graduates of Howard, Harvard, Hampton, Penn State University, Julliard, and many more. Harrisburg’s first Black Police Officer and some of our nation's first Black Teachers. People who worked on and created the Underground Railroad, above ground too. Poets, journalists, Coal Miners, Caterers, Mailmen and Contractors. The builders of our nation. They do not deserve this disrespect. No one does.
The dead should be allowed to stay buried.
We had to lift my great-grandparents headstone from where it had fallen facedown on top of my grandpa’s.
We pulled back years of dirt, vines and grass that left only a sliver of my grandfather's name, from being lost.
Every time we return to Lincoln Cemetery we find Human Bones. There are Unburied Bodies on the ground, on pedestals of dirt, beside freshly dug holes.
Since the 1800s, our ancestors and much of our extended family have been buried here, in Lincoln Cemetery. Over three generations.
Legacy
When we buried my grandfather, I stood with my grandma, Beryl Elisabeth Warner Williams, at his grave. She told me, in her straightforward way, that she would not be buried with him, when she died, because her body would be returned to Maine, and she would be buried where she was born. Then, likely at my signs of distress, she gestured broadly, and with an all-encompassing swoop of her upraised palm, and she said, "he is surrounded by family."
And, I saw there were many stones that surrounded him on that day. My great grandparents' headstone was just above his. All of the lots in the cemetery were full. My Grandmother’s hand encouraged me to see flags that flew at nearly every gravesite. I had no idea at my age that there had been so many Black Veterans.
Today, the section of the cemetery where my grandfather is buried shows only a handful of grave markers. So, this Summer has been full of bittersweet victories.
My grandmother is having a building at the University of Maine named in her honor . It will be beautiful. And my grandparents would be proud.
And Yet....the Unburied Dead
While I and many others celebrate some of my family’s accomplishments, I am simultaneously fighting for people to respect their lives, and honor their bodies, even in death. How can I honestly think about honoring my Grandma when her husband cannot rest.
My grandparents dedicated their lives to each other. They both felt it was vitally important to honor the community in which they were born. They came into life and went out of it separately.
Launching a social media campaign, coordinating volunteer efforts, drumming up support, traveling back and forth, and digitizing burial records, has taken up a significant amount of time. The majority of the effort has just come from one of my grown kids, myself, and our English Mastiff, Appa (he works hard, but is rather ineffectual at chasing off foxes).
This is not my job, and I do not work for any agency related to the cemetery. I am just trying to honor my ancestors and rebury the dead. We want to make sure that the human remains are reburied, the cemetery is maintained in a manner that the surrounding community can be proud of, and reconnect other descendants with the legacies their ancestors left to them.
The last time we were at the cemetery there were bones everywhere. I was horrified to see, for the first time, that the foxes had been chewing on some of the fresher ones.
The holes that the foxes have dug are actually a network of tunnels that go from each corner of the cemetery and throughout the entirety of the grounds.
When I dream at night they have even carried my ancestor’s remains to one of the tool sheds.
By our unpaid labor and suffering, we have earned the right to the soil, many times over and over, and now we are determined to have it.
— Anonymous Slave, 1861
This GoFundMe is a Descendent-Community Based Fundraiser
We will not allow the dead to remain unburied.
We will ensure that our grandparents, cousins, siblings, parents, spouses are given the freedom that they rightfully earned.
The soil is theirs.
We will celebrate their accomplishments.
We will reclaim and restore the legacy that is theirs.
It is our legacy.
The Financial Cost Of Honoring the Dead
Amount ---- Purpose----Notes
$200
Gasoline
$450-800
Vehicle Rental Fees
Not including costs from increased use of personal vehicles, and public transportation.
$750-$1,000
Hotel Rooms
$200-500
Food
$150
Cemetery Cleanup Day Supplies
$75
Equipment
TOTAL Spent Out-Of-Pocket per Trip
$1,825-$2,725
Estimation of the Total Cost of Burial, Recovery Expenses*:
*Includes Potential In-Kind Donations, Crowd-Sourced Labor, and Services Provided Free-of-Charge.
Care of The Unburied Dead:
Identification of Unburied Dead [$25k]
Re-Interment of the Unburied Dead [$10-20k]
Identification of the Dead in Mass Burial Plots [$15-25k+]
Locating Existing Graves and Grave Markers [$20-30k]
Mapping of the cemetery [$2k]
Estimated Costs for Rehabilitation of Lincoln Cemetery:
Purchase of additional lawn care equipment [$2k]
Travel expenses until maintenance is established [$50k]
Recovery of grave markers [$10-25k]
Replacement Grave Markers or Other Commemorative Monument agreed upon by Descendants [$10-25k]
Perpetual Care Trust---or similar long-term care and financial stability plan [unknown]
Please Like and Follow the SOAL Facebook Page for additional background information, updates, and both live and online volunteer events:
Initial Social Media Response:
TikTok created by Anthony McPherson
News Articles
PennLive: Unearthed Bones Leaves Descendant Shocked
CBS News 21: Historic Harrisburg Cemetery in Need of Help
Fox43: Ny Local Stumbles On Shocking Discovery
You Can Also Contact Wesley Union AME Zion Church in Harrisburg Pennsylvania , about Making Donations to the ongoing maintenance of Lincoln Cemetery.