Cemetery established by formerly enslaved Black Atlantans applying for historic status

More than 90,000 people are buried at South-View, a Lakewood-area cemetery founded by formerly enslaved Black Atlantans in 1886.

Neighboring burial grounds were still segregated by color at the time, and Oakland Cemetery began relocating bodies from “Slave Square” to make room for white grave sites. In the midst of that injustice, South-View’s founders sought out a proper resting place for their loved ones, according to the organization’s website.

Today, the site is home to Congressman and Civil Rights activist John Lewis, who died in 2020, and baseball legend Hank Aaron, who died in 2021. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dr. Benjamin Mays were both buried at South-View before being relocated to the Martin Luther King Center and Morehouse College, respectively.

“We get somebody stopping by at least once, twice a week to see Hank Aaron, especially during the baseball season,” said South-View Cemetery Association president Winifred Watts Hemphill. “People come to the games from out of town, and they want to come see and pay homage to him as well. When we are voting, we usually get a lot of visitors to visit Congressman Lewis.”

Just like the sturdy, century-old oaks shading the grounds, Hemphill’s own history is intertwined with the site. Her great-grandfather, Albert Watts, served as one of South-Views co-founders and helped purchase the original 25 acres of farmland. The cemetery has stayed in the family ever since, with Hemphill’s uncle, Albert H. Watts, running the business until his passing in 2001.

Hemphill took the helm in 2004 and has seen the cemetery through another 20 years and a sharp increase in burials during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said National Register status has been a goal for years to help maintain the historic area, which she referred to as the cemetery’s “diamond.”

“This is an outstanding opportunity for us to really preserve the diamond in the rough that’s there, those original burials, and the people who are buried there,” Hemphill said.

Multiple organizations came together to tackle this new chapter in the cemetery’s history.

APC has a long-standing relationship with South-View, offering annual tours of the property through their Phoenix Files preservation celebration. The group’s executive director, David Mitchell, said a spot on the National Register would formally place the cemetery alongside peers like Oakland and West-View cemeteries that are already listed.

Georgia currently boasts over 2,000 entries within the National Register, whose full database is available online.

“South-View Cemetery should also be on the National Register, to have, if you will, a sense of proper recognition and dignity for our historic cemeteries here in Atlanta,” Mitchell said.

Winston joined the project through a casual conversation with Mitchell, who he knew through earlier APC work. An avid history lover himself, Winston said he had already visited South-View many times and wanted to use his position to help preserve an important piece of Black history.

“This was a place where African Americans could be buried with dignity,” Winston said. “Their loved ones were able to bring them here and not worry about anything negative happening to their burial grounds.”

Along with symbolic impact, a spot on the National Register would help the cemetery qualify for federal preservation grants and tax credits. In Georgia, National Register properties may earn a state income tax credit equal to 25% of rehabilitation expenses, capped at either $5 million or $10 million for nonresidential properties.

Credit: Ben Gray

Credit: Ben Gray

The listing does not place any restrictions or obligations on private property owners.

Most modern-day burials include a perpetual care service, but the families who laid their dead to rest in South-View a century ago were expected to maintain their own grave sites. The cemetery now allocates internal resources to care for the old, often fragile graves in the historic section, a process made more complicated since many descendants have since died or moved away.

Underneath the sprawling green fields, deteriorating boxes from a time before funeral vaults are also experiencing the wear of years. Hemphill said additional funding could be put toward this maintenance, along with improving aging walls beginning to fail.

While the National Register does not charge an application fee, Winston recently secured $50,000 through city council and Mayor Andre Dickens’ office to fund a preservation consulting firm, Verity Works, that will guide South-View through the complex consideration process.

“We really are grateful for council member Winston doing this and really being able to work with us to find these resources to assist in this,” Mitchell said.

Most nominations require several drafts and take around a year to complete, according to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs site. Properties are then assessed based on historic significance and integrity.

South-View has already begun compiling the required research and photographic documentation of the property. In fact, D.L. Henderson, Historic South-View Preservation Foundation advisory board member and local historian, published a 2018 book chronicling the cemetery’s history, which Hemphill pointed to as a helpful start.

Stakeholders will meet July 2 to outline the application process. Hemphill, Mitchell and Winston hope to celebrate a spot on the National Register by 2026, the year of South-View’s 140th anniversary.

Credit: Ben Gray

Credit: Ben Gray

“I think that it’s really going to change the spectrum of people who know about South-View — people who understand the impact that it had, not only in Atlanta, but also in the southeast U.S.,” Hemphill said.

Similarly, Winston hopes South-View’s National Register status will help showcase the beauty of South Atlanta. He said he has already received many phone calls from local residents excited by the plan.

Winston added that National Register recognition may serve as a stepping stone for another of the cemetery’s long-term goals — becoming a National Park.

“There’s so many people that are very well known, but there are also several funerals that happen here every week,” Winston said. “So it’s about the history, but it’s also looking toward the future as well, and making this a place that people from all over Atlanta and the world can enjoy.”