Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago
Confederate Mound
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| Details | |
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| Established | February 12, 1853 |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 41°46′12″N 87°36′00″W / 41.77000°N 87.60000°WCoordinates: 41°46′12″N 87°36′00″W / 41.77000°N 87.60000°W |
| Website | website |
Oak Woods Cemetery was established on February 12, 1853. It covers an area of 74 hectares (183 acres) and is located at 1035 E. 67th Street in the Greater Grand Crossing area of Chicago's South Side. The first burials took place in 1860.
Soon after the American Civil War, several thousand Confederate soldiers, prisoners who died at Camp Douglas, were buried 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. These bodies had originally been buried at City Cemetery, which was being abandoned, but were exhumed and reinterred together in a mass grave, which came to be known as Confederate Mound, reported to be the largest mass grave in the Western Hemisphere.
The cemetery now contains the graves of many prominent African Americans. 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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