A historic African American cemetery established for enslaved parishioners of St. Michael Lutheran Church will host a Nov. 1 rededication ceremony following nearly a decade of work to restore and preserve the burial ground.
“We want to make sure that 100 years from now, people know the story of this cemetery, the people who are buried here, the history of our racial relationships,” said Pastor Frank Anderson. “It’s an obligation I feel as a Christian, as a pastor and as somebody whose family was involved in the issue viscerally that this be preserved.”
St. Michael is inviting descendants of the 160-some people buried in the quarter-acre cemetery to attend the rededication, along with the nearby Pleasant Spring AME Church congregation and community members with family ties to the land. The service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 1 at the cemetery on Windward Point Road and Arwen Lane outside Columbia in the northeastern corner of Lexington County…