I was asked to recount how I became involved with Zion Cemetery for a history being compiled by the cemetery board. Zion Christian Cemetery was founded in 1876 on what is now South Parkway as a burial site for African-Americans. The 17-acre parcel of land was purchased by a group calling themselves the Sons of Zion, and between the founding date and the mid-1960s somewhere between 22,000 and 30,000 African-Americans were buried there. It was abandoned in the 60s when heirs to the original Sons died off. The cemetery quickly went back to nature, swallowed in vines, tall grasses, large thorn bushes, and scrub brush; even small tree grew covering some graves. Vandalism and crime prevailed. In the 1980s a descendant of a Son deeded the cemetery to the CME denomination which is headquartered in Memphis. Some studies were made, a fence was built, but restoration efforts stalled. My chapter begins in the late 1990s and runs for about a decade. I still support the cemetery but no longer lead volunteer clean us as the site is now -- I am happy to say - almost entirely uncovered. Here is the story I submitted to the board:
A Renewed Effort for Zion
by Ken Hall
In 1997 or
1988 Ken Moody, then head of the Mayor’s Citizens Service Center, called Hands
on
Memphis ask for volunteers to help clean up Zion Christian Cemetery. His
office had been contacted by neighbors of the cemetery complaining about the
trash and extreme overgrown nature of the site. We visited it together and
found debris of all kinds among the acres of tall – in some cases four to six
feet tall – weeds. By virtue of blocking
the view from the street, the weeds, massive thorn bushes, scrub brush, and
sampling trees served as a convenient screen for criminal activities; neighbors
told of “chop shop” operations to strip stolen cars, drug deals, sexual
assaults, and more. Clearing the cemetery was deemed a matter of safety.
Vandalism, too, was rampant as headstones had been taken or broken. Over the
years as volunteers pushed back the brush line yard by yard, a strange array of
items was discovered – car parts, shingles,
a pay telephone, bicycle parts,
parts of appliances, as well as a seemingly unending supply of cans and
bottles.
Hands on
Memphis was a nonprofit founded in 1993 to serve as a connecter for people
wishing to volunteer wish charitable organizations in need of volunteers. On average 20 to 30 projects were scheduled
each month for a team of volunteers, usually 5 to10 people. Volunteers team
would clean toys at LeBonheur, hold a reading session at Ronald McDonald House,
build wheelchairs ramps with MIFA, and much more under the guidance of a representative
from the agency. Aside from the monthly
projects, Hands on Memphis held an annual Servathon Day which engaged as many
as 700-1,000 volunteer working at 40-60 sites.
I served as
executive director of Hands on Memphis from 1997 to 2003, and had worked on a
number of project with Ken Moody prior to receiving the call about Zion. His call came shortly before the annual
Servathon so that we were able to field a team of volunteers. We connected with
Rev. Bill Smith who met us on the site
and gave an overview of the cemetery history. That first day was daunting as we
were armed with a few rakes, hoes, and shovels. A good deal of progress was
made around the area of the gates.
We again
visited the project for the next year’s Servathon and were disappoint to see
that no further efforts had followed up our work from the previous year; in
fact, every inch that we had cleared was grown over as if no work had been
done. This was clear note in line with
our normal model of engaging with a nonprofit organization for ongoing work.
There was discussion about abandoning the annual effort as futile. I decided to try to find away to create an
ongoing monthly project and would take on the responsibility myself of serving
as team leader. Having grown up on a farm, I was familiar with brush clearing
and tools such as swing blades, ditch or Kaiser blades, axes, and machetes.
Through Rev. Smith, I was able to learn about the role of the CME denomination
and contact Rev. Tyrone Davis. I served
as leader of a monthly project at the cemetery well beyond my tenure at Hands
on Memphis, probably a decade in total before entirely handing off the reins to
younger, abler folks. Rev. Davis and I
were together at almost every monthly (plus the additional group project dates)
for several years and became good friends.
During this
time, the Hands on Memphis calendar listed a Zion clean up day one Saturday
each
month; some Saturdays there would be 15 volunteers and some Saturdays only
two or three. We worked year around cutting and dragging out brush in 30 degree
weather and 100 degree weather.
Periodically, larger groups would contact me – college students alternative spring break or summer mission trip from other
states, local high school groups, church
groups, etc. – so that some month there might be two or three clean up days
bringing in anywhere from 20 to 150 volunteers. The bigger clean up days meant
huge pile of brush bring dragged out of the cemetery and onto the curb; this
meant coordination with the City of Memphis Solid Waste Department which
sometimes went smoothly and sometimes not. Memphis City Beautiful was a helpful
partner in later years as a go between.
Early Hands
on Memphis in this endeavor began building an inventory of swing blades and
machetes though clearly , unlike paint rollers and trays which we might use at
a dozen agencies, these tools were only
useful at Zion. I wrote a grant proposal
specifically for Zion which obtained support from FedEx to pass through to
create the beginning of a tool inventory. With this we purchased a massive
self-propelled brush cutter which can cut a swatch three feet wide through the
most impenetrable brush. Also we obtained heavy duty, metal bladed weedeaters
as well as more hand tools. A second grant resulted in a 5’x 10’ trailer which
became out mobile tool shed. In 2004 the
new executive director of Hands on Memphis moved the organizations offices to
as smaller space with much less room for tool storage. For a couple of years
the Zion tool trailer was stored in my back yard – making my appearance at the
regular cemetery
clean up dates a command performance! – until it was
eventually relocated to Rhodes College.
Dr. Milton Moreland who came to the project a couple of years after I
did and eventually took over the monthly leadership role, was instrumental in
finding the new home for the trailer. Milton, Tyrone, and I became a very
effective trio in recruiting, organizing, and managing volunteer groups of all
sizes.
In 2006 Hands on Memphis ceased to exist as a
separate entity, merging into Volunteer Mid-South.
That organization was more
inclined to listing projects and promoting best practices than actually
organizing projects . I continued to
work on the cemetery for a couple more years bringingvolunteers when they were
available and meeting groups that inquired. Job changes and health issues
sidelined me from regular participation in the field work though I would help
out as called upon with anything from briefing traveling volunteers groups to
writing press releases.
The cemetery
board has done a remarkable job in the past few years
by bringing in some hired
workers, and a a result the cemetery is in a remarkable state, far better than
we could ever have done with periodic volunteers alone.
The role
that Hands on Memphis played was to connect the cemetery project to a larger
community during a time of transition and by continual activity create
awareness in the eyes of the general public.
We were able to introduce hundreds of individual volunteers as well as
corporate, congregational, and organizational volunteers to the cemetery.
Between the planning done in the 1980s by Ron Walter, Ritchie Smith, and other
to the nearly pristine state today, Hands on Memphis bridged
a gap.
I would be
remiss if I did not mention some of these –
- ·
Idlewild Presbyterian Church who housed
volunteers from Kent State for bi-annual work weeks in the cemetery.
- Dr. Christine McVay of Kent State who brought students down for a week of hard work, twice a year for several years.
- ·
Fellowship Bible Church which adopted an acre
for a year.
- ·
John Carroll, first with Fellowship and then
with Choose901, who brought dozens of college groups from all over the US to
Zion.
- ·
Rhodes College which has helped with everything
from student volunteers to a web site to hosting the annual dinner.
- ·
George Davis, a committed young man from the
neighborhood who was a faithful volunteer until his untimely death.
- ·
Gus Mealor who brought his fellow medical school
out of a regular basis until he residency transfer took him out of Memphis.
- ·
Memphis City Beautiful, FedEx, BellSouth (now
AT&T), Carnival Memphis, MUS, BridgeBuilders, and many , many more.
The most
important lesson of Zion to me is how a problem, in this case blight, can bring
diverse people together in common cause.
