CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Golden Hill Cemetery in Clarksville is filled with people and a history many might not know.
“This cemetery is the oldest continuously owned tract of land by an African American in Clarksville, Montgomery County,” said Shana Thornton.
It also lies on a trail that wasn’t officially created until Thornton came along.
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“We worked on it for a long time before it became an established thing,” she said. “It was unveiled if you will in 2019.”
The idea for the Clarksville Montgomery County African American Legacy Trail began when Thornton realized there wasn’t a document holding the history and stories of the county’s African Americans.
“I thought why can’t we create a brochure,” she said. “Just a brochure…simple you know.”
So she asked for help from Rossview High School, and historian Jerome Parchman who immediately got to work.
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“I would…come in before I went to work and do research at the archives,” he said. “So we constantly did research for about two years before it finally came out.”