A walk through a trio of cemeteries on 10th Avenue in Meridian reveals overgrown grass, covering up names, dates and details on some of the old gravestones. Weeds, brush and small trees stretch across the property, and one veteran’s headstone is cracked down the middle, right through the words detailing his service. A passerby wandering from the narrow path may trip on an obscured gravestone, or find it impossible to reach a grave in the distance. 

Out in rural Lauderdale County, on Kewanee Road, the long forgotten Old Springs Cemetery hides behind the Lauderdale Cemetery.

Beer bottles, discarded tires and used diapers mark the entrance to the cemetery. Grave markers are bent, with cracked glass and dirt covering the names of the dead.

Full-grown trees stand silently while spider webs trap potential mourners. Through the thick trees, the carefully groomed green grass of the Lauderdale Cemetery is visible. 

Three old cemeteries line 10th Avenue: Elmwood, St. Luke and the Historical Tenth Avenue Masonic Cemetery. Lauderdale County maintains the Historical Tenth Avenue Cemetery, which was once maintained by the now disbanded Masonic Lodge 18. The two other cemeteries have no formal caretakers.

According to the historical marker, these may be the biggest African-American cemeteries in Meridian. Similar to the Elmwood and St. Luke cemeteries, the Old Springs Cemetery has no formal caretaker and those familiar with the cemetery believe it’s an African-American cemetery.

Yet, on a recent sweltering August morning, Wayman Newell and Darrell White expertly navigated the hidden trails through the 10th Avenue cemeteries, pointing out specific points of interest, veterans graves they’ve marked with flags and areas they’ve tried to fix. 

Both men said a lawnmower wouldn’t be sufficient to deal with the high weeds, and said they couldn’t estimate how much they’ve spent re-stringing their various weedeaters.

White, who retired more than two years ago, has spent his time trying to find and care for several abandoned cemeteries in the county. He rattled off a list of other cemeteries around the county, using old hunting yards and highways as landmarks.

“I was looking for veterans,” White said. “My daddy on my mother’s side fought in World War I, my uncle fought in World War II and Korea… if they fought for us there’s no reason to treat them this way.”

“If they hadn’t fought for us, ain’t no telling what language we’d speak,” said Newell, the Lauderdale County District 2 Supervisor. 

‘Still in need of caretaking’

When voters first elected Newell in 2008, he started a project to clean up the neglected cemeteries. He and county employees attempted to clean up the cemetery but someone reported Newell to the State Auditor’s Office for using county employees on private property. He paid a $1,400 fine for the cleanup.

“Nonetheless, the cemetery is still in need of caretaking and I will continue to coordinate an all volunteer effort to clean it up,” he said in a statement following the fine.

Together, Newell and White worked with veteran Poppie Tucker, who has since passed away, to spearhead an effort to clean up the 10th Avenue Masonic Lodge Cemetery and secured a historic status when they discovered two Spanish-American veterans buried there.

Wayman Newell

“But we’re getting old… we can’t work like that anymore.”

– Wayman Newell

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History declared the cemetery a historical property in 2011, meaning no one else could be buried there. Newell said the language of the historical marker specifically put the responsibility of upkeep on the county, so the county would be obligated to care for the dozens of veterans buried there.

Newell, White and Tucker, joined by John Harris, James McLaurin, Alexia Rushing, Jermaine Paige and Milton Jenkins, have since marked the graves. A county worker keeps the grass mowed. 

White and Newell reflected on the irony: the Spanish-American War veterans would never have been discovered if they hadn’t cleared the cemetery but they couldn’t secure the historical status, and a lifelong caretaker, until those graves were discovered.

Newell said he believed some of the collapsed graves – with no markers and only simple, now rotted, wooden caskets – could be the graves of formerly enslaved people. Tucker, White and Newell have marked those graves with simple PVC crosses.

“There could be Confederate, slave or Spanish-American war veterans,” Newell said, listing all of the graves that qualify cemeteries for historical status. “There’s federal money for Confederate and slave graves.”

But neither the St. Luke or Elmwood Cemetery revealed any historical graves. County workers can’t work on the sites in their official duties because the land is considered private property – even though the Masonic Lodges that cared for them are long gone.

“As a citizen, I’m willing to help,” Newell said. “But the county cannot get involved.”

Once, the team of men and volunteers managed to get all of the cemeteries in good shape, battling yellow jackets, armadillos and wild dogs. They used wheelbarrows to transport the dirt where the dump trucks couldn’t go and used weedeaters because mowers might damage hidden graves. 

On Saturday, Aug. 19, starting at 9 a.m., Newell will team up with Tyrone Johnson, the City Council Ward 2 representative, for a cleanup with youth at these cemeteries. Johnson could not be reached for comment about whether this would be a regular activity in his ward, which includes the 10th Avenue cemeteries. 

However, Newell and White work mostly alone, attempting to keep Elmwood and St. Luke in good shape. 

“But we’re getting old,” Newell said. “We can’t work like that anymore.”

‘The cleanup has to be consistent’

Robert Kennedy, the CEO, general manager and co-funeral director with Berry & Gardner Funeral Home said he couldn’t remember any recent burials at any of the 10th Avenue cemeteries.

Joseph Kennedy

“Once people are buried, some people never go back to visit their families.”

Joseph Kennedy

“I can’t remember burying anyone (on 10th Avenue) for the last ten years,” said Kennedy, who was worked with Berry & Gardner since 1986. 

The last burial Kennedy recalled was a burial at the historical cemetery just before its historic status closed it. 

“Those are not perpetual care cemeteries,” Kennedy said. “Every family is in charge of keeping up their own plots.”

Kennedy couldn’t say if the neglect came before or after people stopped requesting burials there.

“But I don’t know if they’d go out there, even if it was cleaned,” Kennedy said, adding that there might not be any more space. 

Because the cemetery doesn’t have any maintenance, there are no records associated with the property. Funeral homes could look at their past burials to see who’s buried there, but the cemetery has no oversight. 

“Once people are buried, some people never go back to visit their families,” Kennedy said. “People move away or they don’t take care of their plots.”

Even if someone took over maintenance, Kennedy warned about the cost. 

“In the summertime, if it’s not mown every couple of weeks you’ll still have a problem,” Kennedy said. “It’s a lifetime cleanup. The cleanup has to be consistent.”

‘The family has to get involved’

When Newell, White and Tucker started cleaning up the cemeteries, they had two goals: to find veterans and to expose old family plots.

“We were hoping that they’d see they had a family member here and do their own,” White said.

“We took a lot of time and money to do this,” Newell said. “Why nobody will take care of it… it’s beyond me.”

 Locating property owners has been a dead end, Newell said.

Darrell White

“I was looking for veterans… if they fought for us there’s no reason to treat them this way.”

Darrell White

“I’ve run aground,” Newell said. “I tried for over a year and it’s just been abandoned.”

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who intervened to get care for the Magnolia and Meridian Park cemeteries, has no jurisdiction over the 10th Avenue properties because they are not perpetual care cemeteries. His office only oversees two other local cemeteries: Forrest Lawn Memory Garden, at 7774 Highway 39 North, and Sunset Memorial Gardens Cemetery, on Highway 80 West. 

The city of Opp, Alabama had a similar problem. After residents complained, the city created a cemetery rehabilitation authority, which can accept donations and assistance for the upkeep of cemeteries that have been neglected or abandoned, according to the Andalusia Star-News. 

The authority can also contract for maintenance on the properties, providing a way to care for the cemeteries without using public funds, the newspaper reported. 

Tyrone Johnson, the City Council representative for Ward 2, couldn’t be reached for comment. Mayor Percy Bland said he hadn’t heard of this alternative and said he’d need to review the Opp solution himself. 

For Newell, the solution for the overgrown and neglected 10th Avenue cemeteries is simple. 

“The family has to get involved,” Newell said. “I had one constituent ask me the other day, ‘What’s going to happen to the cemeteries when you’re gone?’ “

He didn’t have an answer to that.