FSU Annual Veterans Day Clean Up
posted by Dr. Charles Anderson Jr., Dr. Kelli Cardenas Walsh | November 21, 2023 | In NewsFor the last decade, the FSU Roots: History Club has paid homage to the resting place of many of the Black doyennes of Fayetteville and Fayetteville State University at Brookside Cemetery.
The idea to do community service at the cemetery came from then-club president Sean Urban. Urban is a veteran and saw this project as a way to give back to those who had such an essential role in the formation and nurturing of our school.
The first school principal of the Howard School, Robert Harris, rests there. So does African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Bishop James Walker Hood. Hood served for two years as the reverend at Evans AMEZ church; he later played a significant role in crafting the 1868 state constitution during Reconstruction and served as the state’s Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Under his watch, hundreds of schools for Black children were established throughout the state. Near Hood’s internment is Dr. E.E. Smith and his family. Smith was the principal and president of the state average school/teachers’ college for over forty years. His leadership at the school was interrupted twice for national service, first as the Ambassador to Liberia and again as Adjutant General of the 3rd NC Infantry during the Spanish-American War. The ceremonial sword he was awarded can be viewed at the Charles W. Chesnutt archives and special collections.
Andrew Jackson Chesnutt, one of the original seven founders of the school, is buried there, as are his children, except for famed novelist Charles W. Chesnutt, who is buried in Cleveland, Ohio. However, you will also find sisters and educators Sarah and Anne Chesnutt in the family plot.
Many more are buried there, but you get the idea of the hallowed ground Brookside represents to the school’s history.
On the Saturday closest to Veteran’s Day, club members arrive at the city-owned cemetery off Lamon Street ready to work. The city provides basic grass-cutting and trimming maintenance, but more care is required. For two hours, we rake leaves, remove fallen branches, and pick up trash littered from the nearby busy Grove Street or others passing through. As clean-up concludes, we place small American flags on the tombstones of those identified as veterans.
Unfortunately, the cemetery has been vandalized over the years, not unique to Fayetteville cemeteries. Therefore, Fayetteville built fencing on the southeastern side several years ago that receives the most car and foot traffic.
The annual cemetery clean-up serves a purpose beyond checking a community service box in Bronco Advantage. It provides a history lesson for our school and the Black community in Fayetteville. It creates awareness of historic preservation and the significance of cemeteries as historic sites. Increased knowledge of these sites makes one aware of their existence and need for care.
It is not just a cemetery in town; it is the final resting place of historical figures whose work and advocacy of our institution made it possible for us to enjoy the benefits of an education at FSU.
Photos courtesy of Dr. Kelli Cardenas Walsh, Mr. Charles Anderson Jr. , and FSU Roots: The History Club
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