But I digress: The Other Statues

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.