Woodland Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia)
Coordinates: 37°33′1.6″N 77°24′44.99″W / 37.550444°N 77.4124972°W
Woodland Cemetery is a historically African American cemetery located in Northeast Richmond, Virginia. It is the second largest African American cemetery in the area, surpassed only by Evergreen Cemetery. The Cemetery was founded by the Richmond Planet editor John Mitchell, Jr. who designed the layout of the cemetery himself. The cemetery is designed in the rural cemetery style and incorporates winding roads on terraced slopes. The layout was inspired by the design of Hollywood Cemetery, designed by John Notman in 1847.
Until about 1970, private cemeteries like Woodland and Evergreen Cemeteries were the only cemeteries open to African Americans for burial in the city of Richmond. The city owned cemeteries remained segregated until over a century after slaves became free in America. As far back as the early 1900s Woodland Cemetery was known as a prestigious place of interment for African Americans. Buried here are many of Richmond's Black elite, including leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, doctors, dentists, bank officers, a female African American spy for the Union and church leaders.
Although there were periods as recently as the 1990s where the Cemetery saw serious neglect including overgrowth and dumping, the cemetery is currently maintained by a small group of individuals led by Isaiah Entizminger.
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