Durham’s Geer Cemetery, just two miles from Duke’s East Campus, was founded in 1877 by African Americans who were born enslaved. In active use for over 60 years, it became the burial place of Black people who built this city and many of its most important institutions, but also a place of institutional neglect and indignity inflicted upon the dead and their descendants. It stands as an example of the broader “preservation crisis” for African American cemeteries nationwide. The undergraduate researchers who worked on this project used Rubenstein Library materials to support genealogical work done by the Friends of Geer Cemetery, a civic organization made up of descendants and community members who maintain the property and work to uncover the lineages of those buried in the cemetery. Researchers engaged with documents such as census records, labor organizing notes, historic map collections and family histories to explore topics such as African American burial customs, uncovering connections between Black labor and the growth of Duke University, and exploring the role of groups such as funeral homes in the struggle for civil rights.
