Updated: 2/28/2009 12:16:58 AM
University of Tennessee students and professors teamed up with the Knoxville Reanimation Coalition (KRC) to breathe life into Knoxville's historic Odd Fellows Cemetery.
Paper bags filled with sand and candles lined the cemetery area along Kyle Street in east Knoxville Friday night. Members of the KRC hope the "illumination" event will shed light on a rich piece of Knoxville's African American history.
"When the city built Kyle Street through the cemetery, it actually paved over some of the graves," said Stephen Scruggs, cofounder of the Knoxville Reanimation Coalition. "There are some famous people buried out here."
Scruggs noted an area of the cemetery where a small rusted gate surrounds the Cal Johnson family memorial plot.
"Cal Johnson was one of the first black millionaires in the state, if not in the country," Scruggs said. "Kids walking past the cemetery don't know his history or the history of the other people buried here."
"There's a history here that has been forgotten or lost," said UT architecture professor Katherine Ambroziak. "Our students and professors have mapped the entire cemetery so we can go to the community and discuss options for restoring this historic place."
Ambroziak said the headstones that have no names or dates provide a glimpse into African American traditions.
"Some of these headstones are bare except for pieces of pottery encrusted in the concrete," said Ambroziak. "The pottery belonged to the person who passed, and their possessions actually give the stone its identity instead of a name or date."
Scruggs said the goal of the reanimation project goes beyond cleaning up a plot of land. He said the real way to restore Knoxville's past is by connecting it with Knoxville's future.
"Our main goal is to use the cemetery as a vehicle to uplift the kids in the area," said Scruggs. "We want to educate them and have them take ownership in this cemetery by writing essays about the people buried here."
The Odd Fellows Cemetery reanimation is part of a larger effort by the KRC. It also wants to build a memorial park near the cemetery on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
"I don't want to be the face of this project. The success of this project requires this to belong to the community," said Scruggs.
Scruggs said the KRC is still working to design a website with information on how members of the community can assist the project.
The Odd Fellows were a fraternal organization that began in England, according to Scruggs. The Odd Fellows chapter in Knoxville was an African American organization that established the cemetery in 1880 as a final resting place for blacks in the community.
