Conversations in African American History and Culture: The History of Greenlawn Cemetery

Event Details

In 2024, Freetown Village continues its monthly conversations with historians, researchers and educators to discuss topics related to Indiana’s Black heritage.

July’s program will feature Leon Bates, who presents “The History of Greenlawn Cemetery: The First ‘Bury Ground’ of Indianapolis.”

Greenlawn Cemetery, Indianapolis’s first cemetery, was a pioneer cemetery created as a public “bury ground” in 1821 by an act of the Indiana legislature. Indianapolis has never had a Black cemetery, but the Indianapolis bury ground had a segregated “colored section.” Between 1821 and 1863, the cemetery grew to include three adjacent cemeteries totaling 25 acres. Greenlawn began to fall from favor with the rise of the rural cemetery movement of the late 1850s and 1860s; this led to the creation of the 555-acre Crown Hill Cemetery approximately four miles to the north. In 1890 the city declared the bury ground full and closed to burials, and by 1902, the other three sections were being condemned as well. In subsequent years, the site of the cemetery underwent several redevelopments, including a baseball stadium, a slaughterhouse and the Diamond Chain Manufacturing Company.

In 2023 a new developer acquired the site with a desire to construct a multiuse redevelopment with a 20,000-seat soccer stadium and is facing the same problem that its predecessors faced: the discovery of human remains, many of them dating to the 1820s. In this talk, historian Leon Bates, a doctoral student in the Department of Pan African Studies at the University of Louisville, will share the history of Greenlawn Cemetery and will discuss the current state of redevelopment and its implications.

The event, which includes a question-and-answer session, will be presented both in person and online via Zoom. Registration is required for both in-person and online attendance. Click on the RSVP link above to register for both the in-person and online options.

For more information, visit Freetown Village’s website at www.freetown.org, email info@freetownvillage.org or call 317.631.1870.

This program received support from an INcommon Grant through Indiana Humanities and the Indianapolis Foundation, a CICF affiliate. Additional sponsors include Indiana Landmarks’ Black Heritage Preservation Program, IUPUI’s Africana Studies program and the Association of the Study of African American Life and History’s Joseph Taylor branch.