~ Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery ~
A walking tour of a historic East Athens burial ground.
Historical marker near the cemetery's front gates.
Located about a mile northeast of the University of Georgia's campus, Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery is on 4th Street in East Athens. Parking is available at the Springfield Baptist Church (550 Fourth Street, Athens, GA 30601).
Gospel Pilgrim Society:
In 1879, the Gospel Pilgrim Society, a black benevolent organization, formed in Athens and, three years later, in 1882, this “Colored Lodge” came together to address a vital community need. “The objective of the said society and the particular business it proposes to carry on are as follows: To look after and care for the sick, the indigent, and the destressed among their race; to see to it that that deceased among their number, as well as all others of their race, not otherwise provided for, are properly and decently interred” (The Banner-Watchman, December 18, 1883.) To achieve that end, the lodge acquired a building on the corner of West Hancock Avenue and Pope Street and a large plot of land, to be “used solely as a burial ground and known as ‘East Athens Cemetery’” (The Banner-Watchman, January 1, 1884)
(The Banner-Watchman, December 18, 1883.)
The property was acquired through three separate deeds over the course of three decades. The largest section, 8.25 acres, was bought on July 25, 1882 from Elizabeth A. Talmadge for $238.50 or $268.50. Originally this plot of land had belonged to the estate of William P. Talmadge, a white blacksmith who owned considerable property in the Athens area; the motivations behind this sale are unclear. Then, on June 24, 1902, the society obtained a contiguous three-quarters acre from George P. Brightwell. Finally, on June 3, 1905, the Gospel Pilgrim Society transferred a one-hundred-feet by sixty-feet parcel of land, adjacent to Fourth Street, to the Springfield Baptist Church.
Black Athenians
Stop 1: A Brief History
In 1879, the Gospel Pilgrim Society, a Black benevolent organization, formed in Athens. Three years later, in 1882, this organization came together to address a vital community need: “To look after and care for the sick, the indigent, and the destressed among their race; to see to it that the deceased among their number, as well as all others of their race, not otherwise provided for, are properly and decently interred.” To achieve that end, the lodge acquired a large plot of land, to be “used solely as a burial ground and known as ‘East Athens Cemetery.’”
Such benevolent societies were not uncommon among African-American communities in the post-Civil War South. While such organizations had existed in the northeast and urban South during the antebellum era, fraternal lodges “quickly gained widespread appeal among freed slaves after the Civil War, when African Americans realized that white society was not going to assist them in times of financial crisis, sickness, or death.” Membership in mutual aid societies reached its peak during the 1880s and 1890s. By 1919, there were twenty-nine lodges with approximately 2,500 members, or around 75 percent of the African-American population in Athens.
Over the course of its over 100-year history (1882-2000s), approximately 3,500 African Americans were buried in Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery (approximately twenty to twenty-five percent of those were formerly enslaved individuals). Most were buried during the cemetery’s peak years in the 1930s and 1940s. Only around 500 or so individuals, however, have marked gravesites, with granite or marble stones, or metal plaques provided by funeral homes.
Brooklyn, Spaulding, and Gospel Pilgrim cemetery each served an important role in the Black community. As one of the first Black owned and operated cemeteries in the area, Gospel Pilgrim gave formerly enslaved and freed people a space of their own to mourn their loved ones in the Jim Crow South. Even sharecroppers or others too poor to own private property could join the Gospel Pilgrim Society, ensuring a proper burial.
Gradually the cemetery fell into disarray and, after 1960, fewer and fewer people were laid to rest within its geographic bounds. Problems compounded during the 1970s. In 1973, a tornado passed through East Athens, toppling trees and gravestones in its wake. Alfred Hill, the last surviving member of the Gospel Pilgrim Society, died of a heart attack in 1977; his death marked the end of an era. There had been no long-term arrangement made for perpetual care; families, with members still living nearby, did the best they could to maintain their own plots. But nature slowly reclaimed the landscape
[Researcher & Writer: Tracy L. Barnett]
Stop 2: William Pledger
(Born 1850-1852 & Died 1904)
William A. Pledger was born sometime between 1850 and 1852. He was presumably enslaved as a child. As a youth, in the years after the Civil War, he worked on the railroad; an injury sustained at seventeen changed the course of his career.
Although denied an extensive formal education, he “studied algebra, English, grammar, and Latin as a teenager and was, by his early twenties, able to present a polished penmanship as well as demeanor of an educated man.” While working as a teacher, he became active in the African-American community, first, by assuming a leadership role in a temperance organization and, later, by becoming active in Republican politics.
For a brief period after the Civil War, African-Americans in the South had access—albeit limited—to the political process. The Fifteenth Amendment (ratified February 3, 1870) legally prevented voter discrimination on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In 1870, Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator. In Athens, Pledger campaigned for Republican candidates in the congressional election of 1874. Yet, it was not easy for a Black man to break into southern politics in the nineteenth century. Writing the head of the Republican state central committee, Pledger complained that political "vacancies have been filled since” he applied, but "you white Republicans generally have white Republicans to fill these places when vacant."
In the late 1870s, Pledger took on a new role: that of newspaper editor. Along with William Henry (Harrison) Heard, he was the co-owner and editor of the Athens Blade. In 1879, it was "the only weekly paper edited and owned by colored men in the state." This leading African-American newspaper was distributed throughout Georgia and in several northeastern cities. As a writer and editor, he used the paper to distribute political news and advise African-Americans on their rights as voters. In one column he declared, “We will cease to remember the darker side [of slavery] when the darker side shall cease to cast its shadow upon us." Until Blacks had full and true equality, the Blade would defend "the rights of colored men," give "facts without bias," and "raise the standard of education among all classes."
As a Republican delegate and office holder from 1876 until the 1880s, Pledger was active in state and national politics. At the 1880 convention, he declared: "The colored man wants post offices, custom houses, and collectorships. Give him his sugar and you will satisfy him.” He fought tirelessly for Black economic and political advancement.
Later in life, he studied law in Atlanta and opened his law office—the office Pledger, Johnson, and Malone—in the 1890s. At fifty-four-years of age, he died from unknown causes on January 8, 1904.
[Researcher & Writer: Tracy L. Barnett]
Stop 3: "Pink" Morton
(Born 1856 & Died 1919)
Monroe Bowers Morton, commonly known as “Pink” Morton, was born around 1856. His mother was enslaved, and his father was white. Although Morton lacked a formal education, he became one of the richest, most influential Black men in Georgia and the Southeast region. In 1896 he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. During this period in his career, he participated in the inaugural activities following McKinley’s presidential victory. Morton was also elected postmaster of Athens in 1897, the second Black man to hold this honorable position. As postmaster he instituted many progressive reforms and improvements.
In addition to his political achievements, Morton also had a successful career as an entrepreneur. He owned many buildings and houses in Athens area, including the Morton Theatre located downtown. Opening in 1910, the Morton building sits on the corner of Hull and Washington Street and served as an office for black doctors and black-owned businesses. It also housed the Morton Theatre. The Morton building was significant because it represented cultural performances, famous names in black entertainment, and a center of gatherings for the African American community. Hot Corner in downtown Athens was one of the most vibrant African American owned business districts in the South, and the Morton Theatre remains to this day an essential venue for music and the arts.
[Researcher & Writer: Nicole Powell]
Stop 4: Madison Davis
(Born 1833 & Died 1902)
Madison Davis was born in 1833. While enslaved as a youth, he become free at age 31 after the Civil War. He and Alfred Richardson, another formerly enslaved Athenian, were elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1868. This victory was a major achievement towards equality for former slaves. However, during the session of July 4, 1868, the legislature determined that African Americans had no right to serve in office. 27 of 29 Black representatives were ejected, with Davis and one other man allowed to remain after a committee concluded that they were less than 1/8 African American. It was thought that Davis was allowed to stay in the legislature due to his white appearance. All the legislators were reinstated in 1869 when the GA Supreme Court reversed this decision. His career as a lawmaker was quite successful, with 2 of his 5 bills passing, including a bill that provided state relief after the Civil War. In the third election Davis withdrew his name for unknown reasons, ending this part of his political career.
He became the first Black man to be appointed postmaster in Athens. As postmaster he supported public education matters. He was also involved in an intense congressional campaign between Emory Speer and challenger Allen D. Candler. Davis’s support of Speer resulted in the Candler supporters removing him from the chairmanship of the Clarke County Republican executive committee. Davis died in 1902 after a long life of community and political involvement.
[Researcher & Writer: Nicole Powell]
Stop 5: Minnie Davis
(Born 1859 & Died 1940)
In 1860, 11,218 individuals inhabited Clarke County. 19 were free people of color. 5,660 were African-Americans held in bondage. Minnie Davis was one of these enslaved people. Born in 1859 near Penfield, she was the daughter of Aggie Crawford and James Young.
Enslaved by John Crawford, Davis spent much of her childhood in Athens. Like most enslaved children, she spent her days working—tending crops, toting tools, pulling weeds, hauling water. Despite performing such “odd jobs,” she “never got any money in slavery.” Time for play was sparse. “The only game I can remember playing as a child was a doll game,” mused Davis. She did not get to have a doll, instead she was forced to be the doll; “the Crawford children would use me for the doll.”
Her mother, Aggie, wanted more—for herself, for her daughter, for her family. In the midst of a civil war over slavery, Aggie prayed silently to herself: “Oh, Lord, please send the Yankees on and let them set us free.” Her prayers were answered on April 9, 1865, when the Confederacy surrendered. Union victory ensured slavery’s legal abolition. Freedom, though, arrived gradually across the South. In Athens, “on the day we learned of the surrender, the Negroes rallied around the liberty flag pole that they [had] set up near where the city hall is now.” Raising their voices in song, they proclaimed, “'We rally around the flag pole of liberty, The Union forever, Hurrah! Boys Hurrah!'” The following day, enraged whites chopped down the flag pole.
Reconstruction (the decade following the Civil War), did not bring social or political equality for African Americans living in the South. Instead, it brought economic depression, limited employment opportunities, and Ku Klux Klan violence. Yet freedom had many benefits. Denied a formal education in slavery, Davis took full advantage of freedom’s offerings by enrolling at the Knox Institute, a school for black children opened by the Freedmen’s Bureau. She continued her education at Atlanta University and then returned to Athens to teach in local, segregated schools. Over the course of her forty-year career, Davis instructed numerous African-American children.
Her husband, Samuel B. Davis, published The Athens Clipper, a local newspaper catering to the emerging black, middle-class community. After his death, she ran the paper for a few years before selling it.
Davis made a lasting impression on the community. Prior to her retirement, The Banner-Herald reported: “Mrs. Minnie F. Davis, the only one of the [teacher’s] corps who was with the city schools when they began in 1886, on account of illness, will probably retire. She has served faithfully and efficiently. . . These. . . are among the most efficient teachers in the colored system.” In 1938, Davis remarked, “I would be teaching now if it were not for my bad health.”
Davis died from a dislocated hip and pneumonia on February 13, 1940. A simple, granite stone marks her final resting place in Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery.
[Researcher & Writer: Tracy L. Barnett]
Stop 6: WWI Veterans
Edgar Harden (Born 1892 & Died 1954)
Thomas Poyner (Born 1896 & Died 1967)
These graves mark the final resting place of two veterans of World War I, Edgar Harden (1892-1954) and Thomas Poyner (1896-1967).
Harden, a corporal in the quartermasters division of Company D, served at Camp Jackson in South Carolina and Camp Alexander in Virginia from September 1918 to July 1919, when he was honorably discharged. Poyner, a private in the 45th Company, was stationed at Camp Gordon, where he helped equip and train recruits for deployment to France until he was discharged in December 1918. Like others buried here in Gospel Pilgrim, both were drafted into the army under the Selective Service System—a national military draft in which local boards determined the fate of local people.
A newspaper account from 1918 tells us of a ceremony held in honor of 20 African American recruits, celebrated with a feast, a brass band and a parade through “the business section of town” before their departure for Camp Gordon. Regardless of their position—as garrison troops or as front line soldiers—these uniformed, armed, African Americans challenged Jim Crow. “For many African Americans, black servicemen stood as harbingers—torchbearers—of a new dawn of democratic freedom and opportunity reminiscent of Reconstruction,” notes historian Chad L. Williams. But the inverse was equally true. “For many white Americans, black soldiers represented a distinctive threat to prevailing social hierarchies and white supremacist visions of American democracy.” African-American units served with distinction, at home and abroad. As UGA professor John H. Morrow and historian Jeffrey T. Sammons note, the Black combat regiment known as Harlem’s Rattlers experienced far less discrimination serving under French command than they did in the U.S.
Once the war ended, Harden and Poyner set aside their uniforms and returned to Athens. The Athens Daily Herald printed the names of “Clarke County Colored Men Who Served in the United States Army During [the] World War.” For some African Americans, the First World War was a time to reckon with the meaning of freedom, citizenship, democracy and self-determination. Having served in the military, veterans questioned the segregated world they returned home to. Was it fair to fight for freedom abroad while being denied that same freedom at home? The historical record doesn’t reveal Harden and Poyner’s thoughts, but their lives encourage us to reflect on these questions.
[Researcher & Writer: Benjamin Ehlers]
Stop 7: Annie Derricotte
(Born 1883 & Died 1964)
This stone marks the final resting place of Annie Smith Derricotte, an educator and school administrator with a prominent place in Athens history.
The 1910 US Census lists Derricotte as living on Cherry St. with her husband Thomas Derricotte, who was employed as a waiter, and her mother Rosa Smith. A graduate of Atlanta University, Derricotte gained experience as a teacher working at the Knox Institute, an industrial school for African-Americans whose founders included legislator Madison Davis, and whose alumni included Pink Morton. According to the 2007 PhD thesis of Monica Dellenberger Knight, sometime between 1907 and 1915 Derricotte founded the Rosa Smith Normal School in the Boulevard neighborhood of Athens. “Miss Anne,” as Derricotte’s students fondly called her, designed the school to provide educational training for children in the rural section of town not covered by the public schools. The school had flexible hours to meet the needs of students who had to work in agriculture or industry to help support their families. Derricotte used a high school curriculum focused on “practical and fundamental” learning, and she provided highly individualized teaching methods to help meet the needs of all of her students. This type of teaching required her to maintain small class sizes of no more than 35 students so that each student could progress at his or her own speed.
By 1940, Annie Smith Derricotte owned a home on Dubose Avenue, right near the school she named after her mother. The census taker’s designation of Derricotte as an “elementary school teacher” does not do justice to the impact she had on the education of African Americans in Athens.
[Researcher & Writer: Benjamin Ehlers]
Stop 8: Conclusion
Recently, efforts have been made to recognize the historical significance of Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery and importance of those individuals buried within its grounds.
In April 2006, the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two years later, in 2008, the Georgia Historical Society, in conjunction with the East Athens Development Corporation Inc., erected a state historical marker on Fourth Street. Then, in the mid 2000s, the Southeastern Archaeology Service began the painstaking process of finding and counting the deceased using GIS locations. While a crucial first step, more work remains to be done.
Our current project seeks to remember and rehabilitate this space as well as reckon with lasting legacies of slavery and racial inequality. Our project takes two forms. First, the University of Georgia’s Franklin Residential College, in conjunction with the Friends of Gospel Pilgrim, promotes service-learning days aimed at restoring and maintaining the cemetery grounds. Second, we are building a webpage which maps the locations of graves (marked and unmarked), datafies historical death records, and collects historical information on the lives of those buried in the cemetery. By assuming a digital form, we intend to make these sources publicly accessible to local residents, genealogists, and scholars across the globe. We welcome any information you may have on the men and women buried within Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery.
[Researcher & Writer: Tracy L. Barnett]
Sources: Death Records, Census Data, Military Records, City Directories, and Obituaries
Gospel Pilgrim Today:
Gradually the cemetery fell into disarray and, after 1960, fewer and fewer people were laid to rest within its geographic bounds. Problems compounded during the 1970s. In 1973, a tornado passed through East Athens, toppling trees and gravestones in its wake. Alfred Hill, the last surviving member of the Gospel Pilgrim Society, died of a heart attack in 1977. “Alfred Hill was well thought-of. He was an intelligent man and sold lots in the cemetery. . . . [He] worked right up until he had a heart attack,” recalled an Athens resident in 2003 (Al Hester, Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery: An African-American Historic Site, 23). His death marked the end of an era.
There had been no long-term arrangement made for perpetual care; families, with members still living nearby, did they best they could to maintain their own plots. But nature reclaimed the landscape. By the early 2000s, the cemetery appeared as an overgrown wooded lot. One of the cemetery’s last burials occurred in November 2003; Cleo Johnson was buried beside her husband, Curtis Johnson, in Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery.
A gravesite in the cemetery's far reaches. Photo taken in 2020.
Then, in the early 2000s, the white and black community came together again. This time to apply for a historical maker; the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2006. Two years later, in 2008, the Georgia Historical Society, in conjunction with the East Athens Development Corporation Inc., erected a state historical marker on Fourth Street. It reads: “The Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery was founded in 1882 by the Gospel Pilgrim Society, a fraternal organization, to furnish respectable funerals and burial places for Athens-area African Americans. Popular in the nineteenth century, such societies offset funeral costs and ensured a funeral procession and proper burial for members. The cemetery illustrates a Reconstruction-era departure in the black community from burial sites associated with specific churches. Gospel Pilgrim also contains fine examples of African-American funerary art. Approximately 3,500 persons are buried here, including state legislator Madison Davis and nationally recognized folk artist Harriet Powers.”
In the mid 2000s, the Southeastern Archaeology Service began the painstaking process of finding and counting the dead using GIS locations. While a crucial first step, more work remains to be done.
Visit the webpage: The Athens Death Project
The Athens Death Project seeks to remember and rehabilitate this space as well as reckon with lasting legacies of slavery and the racial inequalities of Death in the American South. This walking tour, we hope, will bring attention to this mournful yet meaningful public space.
