COLLECTION NAME:
Undergraduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Racism Does Not End at the Grave: A Case Study of Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery
Creator:
Miller, Robin
Subject:
Thesis (B.F.A.) -- Architectural History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Architectural History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
"It can be easy to assume that in death, all people are equal. However, through much of the United States' history cemeteries have been segregated either by ethnicity, religion, or social standing. The pervasive nature of racism has had a long-lasting effect on black cemeteries. Using Savannah, Georgia as a case study, this paper will explore the racism evident in the treatment of the black community's dead, beginning with the loss of colonial negro burial grounds and extending to urban renewal projects that cut through, erased, and redeveloped later cemeteries. Primary focus is given to Savannah's municipal Laurel Grove Cemetery, which replaced the colonial burial grounds in the nineteenth century. Framed by the legacy of racism that shaped the establishment, location, and erasure of the Negro Burying Ground as the city expanded southward and the establishment of Laurel Grove as a Southern municipal rural cemetery furthered the color-line evident in Savannah's city of the dead. Racial hierarchy was established through the cemetery's physical segregation, the unequal quality of land provided for the white and colored sections, the drastically different designs of each section, and the destructive public projects that further divided the two sections, most notably, the Thirty-Seventh Street Connector to Interstate 16, which permanently severed the two sections and led to their treatment as two separate cemeteries." -- Abstract
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2022-06
Format:
1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 71 pages, color illustrations, maps, plans)