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Making History
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The Bethel Burying Ground Historic Memorial project targets late spring for groundbreaking
By Duncan Spencer
Last Spring, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, (OACCE) was shuttered to help bridge the city’s $740-million budget shortfall due to COVID-19. But one of the office’s priorities, the Bethel Burying Ground (BBG) Historic Site Memorial, is still conducting business as the project remains fully funded with a timeline in place.
As chair of the Friends of Weccacoe playground, I sit on the city-appointed committee for the BBG Historic Site Memorial, along with Eleanor Ingersoll (QVNA president), Rev. Mark Tyler (pastor of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church at 6th and Lombard), representatives from OACCE, plus artists, activists, historians, and public figures (see http://bit.ly/QVNA_BBG).
An 1862 map including the Bethel Burying Ground at the corner of Queen and Cob (now South Lawrence) streets.
The memorial will be built in the southwest quadrant of Weccacoe Playground (400 block of Catharine Street) because underneath the land there, some 5000+ congregants of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church and members of the African American community remain interred. The site operated from 1810 to 1864 and may be the first independent cemetery of the African American community. Historic records show some of the interred to have been the architects of the Black suffrage movement and the desegregation of the city’s transit system. An estimated 40 percent of those buried were young children. For a deeper dive on this topic, see Terry Buckalew’s comprehensive website The Bethel Burying Ground Project at bethelburyinggroundproject.com.
The headstone of Amelia Brown, discovered during an archaeological excavation of the site and now in the archives of the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The City of Philadelphia has earmarked approximately $1.2 million toward a fitting commemoration for these important Philadelphians. The committee has been working since 2017 to develop the parameters for the project. Before the halt to in-person meetings, the committee worked together to select five teams to become finalists in proposing a vision for the project. The selected artists, who come from this region, other parts of the country, and around the world are:
• Muhsana Ali: American born, lives in Senega; studied with Izaiah Zagar
• Sara Zewde: American born; founder of Studio Zewde
• Karyn Olivier: Born in Trinidad and Tobago; based in Philadelphia
• Shawn Theodore Jackson: American born; Philadelphia, NYC , LA
• Juan Logan: Born in Nashville, Tennessee; work can be found at Philadelphia Museum of Art
While an artist meet-and-greet with the committee and a walk-through of the playground site had to be cancelled this spring, a fluid timeline is in place to continue the progress to completion. The committee’s meet-and-greet with the finalists took place in October, and the artists then met separately with City officials to review technical aspects of their proposals and the project. In the new year, there will be opportunities for public review and input with a late spring target for construction to begin. ■
