Oak Woods Cemetery
Confederate Mound in 2006
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| Established | February 12, 1853 |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 41°46′N 87°36′W / 41.77°N 87.6°WCoordinates: 41°46′N 87°36′W / 41.77°N 87.6°W |
| Website | Oak Woods Cemetery |
Oak Woods Cemetery is a cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. Located at 1035 E. 67th Street, in the Greater Grand Crossing area of Chicago's South Side, it was established 164 years ago on February 12, 1853, and covers 183 acres (74 ha).
The first burials took place in 1860. After the Civil War (1861–1865), several thousand Confederate soldiers, prisoners who died at Camp Douglas, were reburied here. A monument, which former Kentucky Lieutenant Governor John C. Underwood helped construct, says that 6,000 soldiers were buried here and lists names of more than 4,000. Another, smaller memorial commemorates the Union guards who died at that facility of contagious diseases. These bodies had originally been buried at City Cemetery, which was abandoned during expansion of Grant Park during the urban renewal following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. They were exhumed and reinterred together in a mass grave, which came to be known as Confederate Mound, reputedly the largest mass grave in the Western Hemisphere.
The cemetery now contains the graves of many prominent African Americans, including Chicago's first African American mayor Harold Washington. It also has section for U.S. veterans of several wars, and a separately maintained Jewish section.
Roland Burris, the U.S. Senator appointed by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, constructed a family tomb at 41°46′16″N 87°36′08″W / 41.77122°N 87.60215°W in the Oak Woods cemetery, in preparation for his and his wife's eventual interment. The tomb received considerable publicity (generally negative) since Burris' appointment by the since-convicted governor. The rear portion of the large stone structure resembles a triptych, forward of which are two burial vaults; the left one is engraved with Burris' name and birth date and the right vault with the name of Burris' wife. The central segment of the triptych includes a large inscription of the words "TRAIL BLAZER" along the top. The segments of the triptych also include accomplishments of Burris and his wife, both of whom are still living. These note that Burris was the first African American to be Attorney General of Illinois, the first African-American exchange student from Southern Illinois University to the University of Hamburg, Germany, and the first non-CPA to be on the board of the Illinois CPA Society.
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