Community Engagement
This project values community engagement in all aspects of its work. Collaboration and partnership with the African American communities surrounding Clemson University is especially important, but we also recognize the need to engage with all communities tied to the university. Community leaders from the four local areas surrounding Clemson—Anderson, Clemson-Central, Pendleton, and Oconee County—advise on local research, community outreach, and preservation and memorialization plans for the African American Burial Ground. Only through direct work with churches, museums, community leaders, and others will we have a truly collaborative project. Read more about community engagement on our project blog and sign up for our monthly newsletter.
Community Engagement Council
Anderson
J. T. Boseman
Jack Henderson
Dr. Kaifa Roland
Nekaun Swinger
Dr. Beatrice Thompson
Clemson-Central
Rosa Grayden
Dalphene Jameson
Oconee County
Shelby Henderson
Kathy Jenkins
Helen Rosemond-Saunders
Pendleton
Terence Hassan
Deveraux Williams
Our Communities
This project will work with the multiple diverse communities at Clemson University and the surrounding cities and counties in order to have a comprehensive and community-engaged project. We take a broad and inclusive approach to community engagement that recognizes the need to communicate with descendants of the known and recently recovered burials in the cemetery. We are cognizant of the many histories and publics tied to the University. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and administrators at the University contribute to various aspects of our project and provide input at our events. Several Clemson students and staff have been trained as cemetery tour guides or offered to host programs to engage the public with our work. The project invites local K-12 students and teachers to think about how this space reflects local history. State, local, and national government officials also have an interest in the success of this project and what it can share about South Carolina’s history. Those who cannot visit the space but have an interest in historic cemeteries will also benefit from learning about the histories we uncover and the policies we adopt. Lastly, residents of Clemson, Central, Seneca, Anderson, and Pendleton are essential for helping us uncover local histories that they know, but have not yet been documented. We engage with the broader community through projects like our arts group, community conversations, and volunteer research program. If you would like to get involved with the project reach out to us at afamburials@clemson.edu.
Restorative Justice
Community engagement in this project is tied to restorative justice. This means that the relationship with the community is multidirectional. In one direction, the community aids us in deciding what we plan to do with the cemetery and how we will commemorate the unknown burials. In the other, the community engagement team works to assist the local descendant communities on projects that uplift the communities and address persistent inequalities. Clemson University students and others helped beautify the community garden at the Blue Ridge Community Center, the former African American high school in Seneca, SC, which is now an important community center for the whole city. We are also sponsoring workshops about researching genealogy and empowering Black entrepreneurs. We look forward to working with other non-profits and community centers around the area on projects that promote and preserve important Black history, culture, and success in the Upstate.
Volunteers at the Blue Ridge Community Center in October 2023.
Upcoming Events
Events in Local Communities
Explore events happening in surrounding communities sponsored by our community partners.
Cemetery Tours
One of our most popular community engagement activities are free cemetery tours. The cemetery at Clemson University, nestled beside Memorial Stadium ("Death Valley"), is now open again to the public for visitation. The 17.5-acre wooded area actually has three burial grounds: the African American Burial Ground, the Andrew Pickens Calhoun Family Plot, and Woodland Cemetery. Over several months in 2023, the Pathways Project significantly improved the campus cemetery, from addressing accessibility concerns in the sacred space to providing additional lighting and security measures.
Tours are held between February and November. We are offering free one-hour cemetery tours to classes, local organizations, and campus and community groups. If you would like to schedule a tour, please fill out the Tour Registration Form, or contact us via our main email address afamburials@clemson.edu.
If you would like to become a cemetery tour guide and help us share this story, please fill out our tour guide registration form.
“I loved the tour. I intend to encourage my students and colleagues to take the tour.”
Tour Participant, 2021
Public Meetings
Throughout the year we host a series of public meetings to update the community about the work being done on the project and to listen to community advice and input for how the project should move forward. We are excited to announce that these will be in-person public meetings. In Fall 2021 we held events in Clemson’s Nettles Park and Seneca’s Norton Thompson Park which saw excellent turnout. The more than a dozen members at each meeting heard about the latest project updates and provided their input about accessibility for the cemetery and the creation of a local Black History trail. Follow us on social media to find out about our upcoming public meetings.
Community Events
We have planned many events to increase community engagement with the cemetery, from partnering with the National Pan-Hellenic Council to provide cemetery tours to hosting public workshops that showcase the sources used by project staff to tell this history. We will also be facilitating multiple events that encourage people to come to the cemetery and reflect, write, sing, paint, or otherwise engage with the sounds, views, and histories of the space. Check out our upcoming events and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get updates about upcoming opportunities to engage with us.
Volunteer
We have multiple ways for you to get involved in the cemetery project. Pease email the project Community Engagement Assistant or afamburials@clemson.edu to discuss available opportunities for involvement with research. You can also fill out our volunteer researcher application to be considered for opportunities as they arise. We are always training new cemetery tour guides and would love to have you join us. You can apply to receive a tour guide training by using the link below. Clemson students interested in contributing to the project should register for our Fall and Spring semester Creative Inquiry courses.
