LIBERTY, Mo. — Shelton Ponder says he often walks through the Fairview and New Hope cemeteries in Liberty, Missouri.
“I feel peaceful. I just, I think about all these people,” he said. “My family’s been here for 200 years.”
He says he knows exactly where his great grandparents are buried.
“That’s William Slaughter,” he said, showing where Slaughter and his wife Mary Decourcey Slaughter were laid to rest. “His to-be wife was enslaved and he was in the civil war, was in the Union Army.”
But he says not everyone’s final resting place can be so easily found.
“There are a lot of stones when they buried people here that are gone,” he said.
Clay County African American Legacy Inc., with the support of other groups and volunteers, is working now to create the Liberty African American Legacy Memorial. Ponder is a co-chair on the project. They say their research shows more than 700 African Americans are laid to rest in a segregated part of Fairview and New Hope cemeteries, dating back to the 1800s, many in unmarked graves.
“It means everything. That’s somebody. That’s some person who existed,” Ponder said.
“We can’t name everyone who is buried there because there is just some missing documentation, that’s all there is to it,” said Erin Martin, lead researcher for the project, working to find and confirm as many names as they can. “As you study who is definitely buried there, then you also have to verify, 'Well, are their siblings or parents buried there?' So you have to track that down.”
“Not only do we want to put the grave marker there, but we would like to put story stones,” said Dr. Cecelia Robinson, retired professor and historian for Clay County African American Legacy Inc. “We would like to put panels that tell the stories of the individuals who are buried there, who have made a difference and contribution in this area.”
You can find examples of their research, their list of people they say they have confirmed are buried there, and more on the Liberty African American Legacy Memorial website.
Landscape architect Stephen Rhoades has been helping with the project.
“I hope this is here forever,” he said.
“Names have power,” Harold Phillips said.
Along with Ponder, he is co-chair of the project, separate he says from his role as a Liberty city council member. The group has been working on the plans for the memorial for the last few years and are hoping the memorial will be finished by August 2021. Right now, they say community donations are crucial.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re gonna get there,” Phillips said. “People have heard about this and they want to be a part of it.”
The project's GoFundMe pageshows donations have started to come in but more is still needed to reach the $100,000 goal it shows.
Sara Cooke, spokesperson for the city of Liberty, confirmed that the city owns Fairview and New Hope cemeteries and via email, responded regarding what next steps could need to be considered for the project:
“Fairview and New Hope cemeteries are City owned. Locating a monument, as opposed to a grave marker, in the cemeteries is something new for our City Council. With that there are a number of things that need to be considered, including:
- Who will own the land?
- Who will own the monument?
- Who will be responsible for maintenance and funding for maintenance in the future?
- Where is the best location for the monument in an area with so many unmarked graves?
Staff is researching best practices on these issues and we anticipate that will help in conversations with the memorial planners for a future presentation to the Council of their plans.”
"It is painful but it is our history," Robinson said. "And, you know, people without knowledge of their history, are like trees without roots. We have to, we have to know the history, it has to be shared."
