Please go to http://bethelburyinggroundproject.com/ for a continuation of this blog. Thank you.

“The people united, will never be defeated.”

The Friends of Bethel Burial Ground Coalition is working to preserve the final resting place of 5,000 Black Philadelphians who are interred in an historic burial ground under the Weccacoe Playground at 4^th and Queen Street, in the Southwark section of South Philadelphia.

The City of Philadelphia, Department of Parks and Recreation is trying to renovate the playground with no regard for the graves of our ancestors buried there. These Black Philadelphians lived and died in Southwark during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. They are the founding members of the Black community in Philadelphia. They are our ancestors in the African Diaspora.

The Friends of Bethel Burial Ground Coalition is made up of residents and taxpayers of Philadelphia County, who own this historic public site. We are working to stop any further desecration of the site by permanently protecting and preserving the graves of our ancestors as a local, state and national historic site.

The Coalition is holding a public Libation Ceremony on Saturday October 18, 2014 at the burial site. Since the rediscovery of this historic site there has been no public prayer offered for our ancestors at the place of their interment. We ask that every person interested in honoring the African Ancestors buried at this historic site join us to offer prayers and celebrate their lives.

We encourage you to bring your drums, bells, horns and all of your good will, as you join us to honor our ancestors on Saturday October 18th  at 4^th and Washington Avenue in Philadelphia. Please wear traditional African attire if you have it. Everyone of goodwill is invited to participate. 

Queen Village Burial Ground a Hot Topic

Queen Village Burial Ground a Hot Topic
Philadelphia Daily News, May 5, 2014.
Valerie Russ, Staff Writer

IGNATIUS BECK, a freed former slave, had a life story that nearly rivals that of Solomon Northup, the free man kidnapped and sold into slavery who was the subject of the movie "12 Years a Slave."

Beck came to Philadelphia from Maryland in 1805 and was a member of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in 1810, when, according to historian Terry Buckalew, he was duped into traveling south for a business venture.

Beck spent two years re-enslaved in Virginia before he was able to escape and return to Philadelphia.

He is one of 5,000 people whose bodies lie in the old Bethel Burying Ground beneath the Weccacoe Playground, on Catharine Street near 4th, in Queen Village.

At 6:30 tonight at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Mayor Nutter's chief of staff, Everett Gillison, will host what might be a contentious meeting about how to commemorate the spot while also moving forward with planned renovations to the playground.

The Rev. Richard Allen, founder of Mother Bethel church, at 6th and Lombard streets, purchased the cemetery in 1810. The church sold it to the city in 1889.

For months, tensions have been simmering between two factions over the burial ground. Both sides agree that it should be commemorated, but they disagree over the future of a community center above it.

"Queen Village Neighbors Association is going around telling people we are trying to take their playground from their children," said Joseph Certaine, a former city managing director who is the spokesman for the coalition Friends of Bethel Burying Ground.

He said the center is leased to the association, which rents it out for birthday parties and other activities.

Certaine and lawyer-activist Michael Coard want the building dismantled and the cemetery fenced off.

"Our concern is the burial ground itself and the activity on top of it," Certaine said. "We want them to cease activity in the building."

The other side - including Queen Village Neighbors Association, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church and descendants of Richard Allen - says the playground should be renovated and the building used to teach the history of the cemetery and life in Philadelphia in the 19th century.

Duncan Spencer, president of Friends of Weccacoe Playground and a board member of Queen Village Neighbors Association, said he wants the association to stop renting out the center.

He said the group is barely breaking even on a $130 rental fee - after paying for insurance, a staffer to open and close, and cleaning up after parties.

"Our biggest vision for the building is for a place to house the memorial for the cemetery," Spencer said.

Spencer said his coalition would love to see it used for an after-school program.

"We want to have a place where latchkey kids can come to have a safe environment to have access to computers, do their homework and recreate outside."

Each side has accused the other of ramping up "agitation" over the issue.

Spencer said that historian Buckalew, who is white, has said the city would not allow people to walk over a historically white cemetery.

"That's not true," Spencer said. "If it's a desecration, then that has implications all over the city.

He said that both Washington Square and the new Sister Cities Park in Logan Square are both above old cemeteries.

Valerie Russ, Staff Writer, Philadelphia Daily News 

Protect Bethel Burying Ground

Philly to Host Meeting About Historic Cemetery

Philly to host meeting about historic cemetery

Philadelphia Inquirer, May 2, 2014: Stephan Salisbury, Inquirer Staff Writer

The Nutter administration, faced with rising concerns over postponed renovations to a Queen Village playground that sits atop one of the nation's most historically significant African American cemeteries, will host a public meeting Monday to hear from as many people as possible about the site's future.

The 6:30 p.m. meeting, to be conducted by Mayor Nutter's chief of staff, Everett Gillison, will be at the African American Museum of Philadelphia, Seventh and Arch Streets.

At issue is what should happen to Weccacoe Playground, which covers nearly an acre at Queen and Lawrence Streets, and Bethel Burial Ground, where more than 5,000 African Americans were buried between 1810 and the mid-1860s.

An April 21 e-mail from the Queen Village Neighbors Association called on neighborhood residents to attend the meeting to help forestall efforts "to shut down Weccacoe Recreation Center and possibly the entire playground."

Leading the closure effort, the e-mail claims, is an outside group "calling itself 'Friends of Bethel Burying Ground' - which has no affiliation with Queen Village Neighbors Association or Mother Bethel Church." Should the effort succeed, the e-mail says, it "would take a vital play space away from our neighborhood's children."

The e-mail is signed by association president Jeff Hornstein and Friends of Weccacoe Playground chair Duncan Spencer.

The cemetery, designated last year as a protected historic site by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, lies less than two feet beneath about a third of the playground site.

The neighborhood association wants to proceed with a long-planned renovation of the part of the playground that lies outside the cemetery boundaries. Renovations would include reconfiguration of storm-water management, and refurbishment of equipment and the playground surface.

A second phase of construction, as yet unfunded, involves upgrades to a community building that sits over the cemetery. Building construction in the 1950s and 1960s, and attendant installation of utility lines, disrupted that portion of the cemetery.

The group the association cites is a loose coalition of individuals and organizations, including former Managing Director Joe Certaine, historian Terry Buckalew, and lawyer Michael Coard, cofounder of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. Rep. Robert Brady (D., Pa.) has also called on the city "to rethink its current renovation plans, while taking into consideration the national historic importance of the property."

Certaine, unofficial spokesman for the effort, argues that the city owns the property and should guide the destiny of a site of "enormous national significance."

"We're trying to protect the burial ground," he said, citing sinkholes and a deteriorating 180-year-old water main on Queen as potential threats. Certaine has called for an engineering study and water-main replacement as first steps in protecting the cemetery.

The neighbors association, Certaine asserted, has not reached out to the entire community on the issue, and the city has not exercised its authority over the site.

Hornstein disputed Certaine's characterization.

"No one wants to do anything that would disrupt the burial ground at all," he said. "There's never been any interest in disturbing it."

Hornstein said renovations and plans were modified following rediscovery of the burial ground. Everything was then "ready to go" last year when "a new group emerges out of nowhere to essentially try to shut it down."

A spokesman for the administration said questions would be answered Monday.

A Hero Buried On Queen Street

IGNATIUS BECK

Introduction

            Ignatius[1] Beck[2] was a common man forced by prejudiced state of affairs to uncommon levels of accomplishment and action. He was a person of courage, integrity and sound judgment, who was proclaimed “respectable in his appearance and demeanor, and unimpeached by a whisper against his veracity or general character.”[3]  Acknowledged deferentially in his later years by the African American community as “Uncle Beck,” he was a dedicated family man and an early member of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church. Beck was a trusted[4] associate of its founder, Reverend Richard Allen,[5] who appointed him a “Class Leader.”[6] In addition, Beck was the first chairman (1830) of the Free Produce Society of Philadelphia. The Society advocated for the purchase of food and textiles only raised by the labor of freemen and to boycott those items that were raised by the labors of enslaved men and women.[7]

            Buried in the Bethel Burying Ground in 1849 at 75 years of age, he epitomized the African American determination to exercise control over their destiny.  The sheer will of the man is testimony to his family, faith and community. During a time of violent intolerance and white supremacy, Black Philadelphian citizens like Beck hammered back with tenacity, enterprise and love. What is a hero? The Athenian soldier and statesman Themistocles believed that a hero was “not one who conquers, but saves; not the man who ruins, but the man who erects; who of a village can make a city, or turn a despicable people into a great nation.”[8]

            It is up to the individual reader to decide if Ignatius Beck meets this criterion.

Enslaved Capitol Builder

Mr. Beck was born to an enslaved mother on Joseph Beck’s tobacco plantation in either 1774 or 1775. The plantation was on the outskirts of what is now Bowie, Maryland. In 1791, at the age of sixteen he was legally guaranteed manumission at his 25^th birthday. However, when he was 19 years of age he was “rented” out as a laborer to the contractor that was building the United States Capitol Building in the nearby District of Columbia. Federal archival records show payments for “Negro hire” to assist in the construction of the United States Capitol Building beginning on February 11, 1795 and ending on May 17, 1801. In total there were 385 payments made out during that period. Initially, the contracted annual rate for slaves was $60 which all went to the slave’s owner. The owner’s only obligations were to provide a set of adequate clothes and a blanket which offered little protection against the deadly mosquitoes in summer and the bitter cold in winter. Beck’s duties could have included timber and stone sawing, brick making, bricklaying and the strenuous hauling that comes from these tasks.[9]

Blackball Maker

            After 25 years of being enslaved Ignatius was freed in in either 1800 or 1801 and made his way north to Philadelphia. Initially, the Beck family lived at an unknown address on south 7^th Street. In 1810 they moved to 14 St. Mary’s Street (now Rodman Street), which runs between 6^th and 8^th Streets and Lombard and Pine Streets. The tenement was located on what is now Starr Gardens Playground and within sight of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church. Mr. Beck worked out of his home making blackball. Beeswax, lampblack and animal fat were mixed in combination to make a substance that was rolled into 1 ounce balls. The predecessor to shoe polish, this “blackball” was used to blacken shoes, boots and military leathers. With the invention of shoe polish in 1800 the use of blackball was only used by certain segments of society. Each maker of blackball had their own formula and Beck’s must have been was very popular because the city directories have him manufacturing it out of his home until at least 1814; fourteen years after shoe polish became available.[10]   

Kidnapped

            Residing on St. Mary’s Street in 1810 and struggling with the cost of raising a family, Beck cast his fate to the wind. He was approached by a seemingly respectable and well to do white man, living on Lombard Street, with an offer of employment. Beck was to accompany him as his man servant to North Carolina for a period of time and for this service he would be well paid. Financial circumstances dictating the decision he agreed to the terms and looked forward to the day he could return to his wife and children. The arrangement was going well as the two men approached the border shared by Virginia and North Carolina. They arrived at an inn on a Saturday evening obtaining lodging and food. The next morning, the Sabbath, the white man suggested that Beck might want to accompany a local group of slaves owned by the inn keeper to a Baptist meeting seven miles down the road from the inn. Disposed to do so, he made the journey and returned to the inn that evening only to find his employer had departed. Bewildered, Beck asked the inn keeper how he was to get back home to Philadelphia. The malefactor replied that he was “home” and that he now belonged to him as he bought the duped Black man from “his master.”

            Now a prisoner in a hostile land the “shrewd and sensible man” did not rebel or fight back against his kidnapper. Temporarily accepting his position he went about convincing the whites around him that he was not a threat to escape or seek revenge. Gently, Beck went about inquiring if there was a white man in the area who might be sympathetic to his plight. He was told to seek out a local man, a justice of the peace, who “appeared quite friendly.” At great risk he introduced himself to this individual who listened to the history of the case and with “great joy” heard the compassionate man state that “he was willing to render all the assistance in his power.” 

            The sympathetic magistrate asked Beck what evidence he might have to prove his claim. Ignatius stated that the Reverend Richard Allen, pastor of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, would be able to substantiate his claims. The magistrate wrote Allen and told Beck to go back to the inn while they waited for a reply. However, the slave master caught wind of the plot and Ignatius fled to the magistrate’s home where he was kept hidden in the cellar for hiding as slave catchers and night riders roamed the country side attempting to collect the bounty on the fugitive’s head. In the intervening time Reverend Allen received the request and solicited the assistance of Isaac Hopper, an uncompromising Quaker abolitionist and activist who was known as the “Father of the Underground Railroad.” Allen and Hopper put together the necessary letters and official documents proving that Ignatius was indeed a freeman and a person of “unimpeachable general character.”

            The brave magistrate received the documents, but fearing that Beck would not receive justice from the local vigilantes he hatched a plan. The magistrate had his son escort the escapee on a dangerous journey north for 100 miles while dodging the local slave catchers and their bloodhounds. Successful in their mission, Beck was given forged papers by the young, white Virginian “to prosecute the remainder of his journey.” Beck completed his journey home without further incident. After several weeks elapsed he saw his kidnapper on the streets of Philadelphia and followed him to his home on Lombard Street. He procured a warrant for his arrest and accompanied the constable to the home of the criminal. But the offender had fled and was never heard of again by Ignatius or the local abolitionists. 

In court documents Beck stated that he was away from Philadelphia during this period 1810-1812.[11]

Soldier in the War of 1812

            Martin R. Delany (1812-85) was a historian, journalist, abolitionist, Harvard graduate, physician, and judge. He was the first African American commissioned a major in the Army and widely considered America’s first African American Nationalist, the forerunner of Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, and Malcolm X. In his role as historian he wrote and published “one of the most important books to be written by a free African American in the nineteenth century.”[12] In his seminal work, “The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States,”[13] Delany writes of the response and participation of Philadelphia African Americans to the call to arms (picks and shovels actually) by the Reverends Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. With the looming threat of invasion by the British on Philadelphia, the Engineer Corps of the U.S. Army requested assistance from the citizens of Philadelphia in erecting ramparts or breastwork on the west side of the Schuylkill near Gray’s Ferry. The African American community’s response was robust. Primary sources (government documents) do not exist for an official register or list of names for the company of men that responded. Estimates of their numbers range from 1,000 to 2,500. However, Delaney reports from Federal court documents and possibly from oral histories, that Ignatius Beck was one of the “Black Warriors” or “Black Pioneers” of 1812. He would have been approximately 38 years of age.

Underground Railroad Pioneer

            In 1847, the African American owned and edited abolitionist newspaper, The Ram’s Horn acknowledged and praised Beck as being a co-founder of the Underground Railroad and in the vanguard of establishing the fugitive slave network as a working system of stations, stations masters, cars and coaches. An “estimable” man worthy of respect and honor, the newspaper went on to write about Beck that he was one of a very few in the early years of the Underground Railroad to be a vigilant manager of the network and a keystone in its success.[14]

Religious Man

Ignatius was an early member of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Beck was a trusted[15] associate of its founder, Reverend Richard Allen,[16] who appointed him a “Class Leader.” In this position he acted as a “proxy pastor” and someone who heads a small group of congregants and looks after their spiritual and secular needs.”[17]

Community Organizer

In addition, Beck was the first chairman (1830) of the Free Produce Society of Philadelphia. The Society advocated for the purchase of food and textiles only raised by the labor of freemen and to boycott those items that were raised by the labors of enslaved men and women.[18]

The Stansbury Case 

            By 1839, William Stansbury had been an acquaintance of Ignatius Beck for almost 30 years. Stansbury helped Beck moved his furniture into the St. Mary’s Street tenement back in 1810 and on occasion was paid to haul wood up to his apartment and perhaps perform other small jobs. Whereas Beck chose to work out of his home, Stansbury held various jobs on the wharves of the Delaware waterfront. Again, unlike Beck, he was born free in New Bedford, Massachusetts; like Beck, he was one of the African American Philadelphians to join in building the breastworks over the Schuylkill during the War of 1812.

            In January of 1839, Mr. Stansbury was “seized in the streets of Philadelphia” by the notorious slave catcher George F. Alberti and accused of being a fugitive, a runaway slave who 23 years previously escaped his Prince George’s County enslavement. Mr. Stansbury’s case was quickly taken up by The Pennsylvania Abolition Society and two highly experienced attorneys, Charles Gilpin and David Paul Brown, were charged with defending Mr. Stansbury.

            In a landmark case tried before Judge Joseph Hopkinson of the United States District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia Ignatius Beck was the key witness for the defense. The trial beginning on 31 January 1839 and ending in March of the same year ended with Judge Hopkinson finding that William Stansbury was a freeman and not a fugitive slave. In his ruling, Hopkins stated that Beck was “a very important witness” who was submitted to a “very severe cross-examination” and showed himself to be “respectable in his appearance and demeanor, and unimpeached by a whisper against his veracity or general character.” Ignatius Beck was 65 years of age.[19] 

The Citizen

            For the next 10 years Beck was employed as a rope maker, chimney sweep, master sweep and a dealer of unspecified material. He would serve his community, church and race well. He would be witness to numerous riots and acts of racial and ethnic violence on and around St. Mary’s Street. Perhaps that is why he moved his family to within sight of Independence Hall and rented the rear of a building at 198 South 5^th Street hoping for a more peaceful existence. The area in the 19^th century was made up of a diverse group that produced manufactured good as compared to the 18^th century when it was a neighborhood of artisans. There were devastating fires in 1851 and 1855 that probably destroyed where the Beck’s had resided. What was built over that land was eventually torn down by bulldozers in 1959 to make way for Independence Mall.[20]    

            He died on October 14, 1849 at 75 years of age from Tuberculosis. He was living at 31 Barclay Street (now Delancey Street) bear 6^th and Spruce Streets. City directories do not show him listed in business for the last several years of his life. He is buried on Queen Street in the Bethel Burying Ground.

A hero is not one who conquers, but saves; not the man who ruins, but the man who erects; who of a village can make a city, or turn a despicable people into a great nation

---

[1] I have found Mr. Beck’s first name also spelled “Ignatious” and “Igantious.” During his enslavement he was called Ignatius and also “Nashe.”

[2] The name “Beck” likely comes from his , Joseph Beck of Prince George‘s County, Maryland.

[3] This observation by stated by Judge Joseph Hopkinson of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania, The Law Reporter, editor, P.W. Chandler, vol. II, May, 1839-April, 1840, p. 110. Judge Hopkinson was the son of Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. This book is available electronically on Google Books.

[4] Joseph A. Borome, “The Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, v. 92, no. 3, July, 1968, 320-351, 339. On at least one occasion Beck was trusted by Rev. Allen to carry cash to be delivered that was collected at the Church for the benefit of The Vigilant Committee.

[5] D.E. Meaders, Kidnappers in Philadelphia: Isaac Hopper’s Tales of Oppression, 1780-1843, Second Edition, ed., E.L. Wonkeryor; Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers, Cherry Hill, NJ, 2009, 255-256; National Anti-Slavery Standard, 20 Jan 1842, 130;

[6] A “Class Leader” at Mother Bethel was someone who held weekly classes of about 12 congregants. The focus of which was to shepherd the faithful by inquiring how they were prospering and also  to advise, reprove, comfort or exhort, collect funds and report the spiritual and physical condition of the participates to the ministers of the Church. The leader of such a class had to be a person of “sound judgment.” See The Doctrines and Disciplines of the A.M.E. Church, 26^th Edition, 1916, 48, 59-60. This is available electronically at Google Books.

[7] Benjamin Lundy, editor., The Genius of Universal Emancipation, a Monthly Periodical Work, vol. 1, Third Series, April 1830, p. 163.

[8] The quote is attributed to Themistocles by Irish author, Henry Brook (1703-1783) in the Fool of Quality or the History of Henry, Earl of Moreland, Vol. I (of V). London: G. Routledge & Sons, 1906, 43.

[9] Allen, William C., History of Slave Laborers in the Construction of the U.S. Capitol Building, 2005. Available at

http://artandhistory.house.gov/art_artifacts/slave_labor_reportl.pdf; Arnebeck, Bob, Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington, 1790-1800NY: Madison Books, 1991; See alsohttp://bobarnebeck.com/slavespt4.html.

[10] Allen, F.J., The Shoe Industry (NY: Holt & Co., 1922), 382; Earle, A.M., Two Centuries of Costume in America, Vol. II (NY: Macmillan, 1903), 756; Philadelphia City Directories are available at PhillyHistory.org and both books are available online at Google Books.

[11] See footnote #3.

[12] Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, And Historical ..., Volume 2, (CA: ABC-CLIO, 20027), 251.

[13] Delaney, Martin R., The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), 72-75. (This book is available on Google Books.)

[14] The Ram’s Horn, November 5, 1847 edition. Frederick Douglass was a reporter and writer for the newspaper.

[15] Joseph A. Borome, “The Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, v. 92, no. 3, July, 1968, 320-351, 339. On at least one occasion, Beck was trusted by Rev. Allen to carry cash to be delivered that was collected at the Church for the benefit of The Vigilant Committee.

[16] D.E. Meaders, Kidnappers in Philadelphia: Isaac Hopper’s Tales of Oppression, 1780-1843, Second Edition, ed., E.L. Wonkeryor; Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers, Cherry Hill, NJ, 2009, 255-256; National Anti-Slavery Standard, 20 Jan 1842, 130.

[17]See Henry McNeal Tanner, Methodist Polity, ed., A. Lee Henderson (Nashville, TN: AMEC Sunday School Union, 1986), 157.

[18] Benjamin Lundy, editor, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, a Monthly Periodical Work, vol. 1, Third Series, April 1830, p. 163.

[19] See footnote #3.

[20] Mires, Charlene, Independence Hall in American Memory (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 218-219.

THE TEMPLE NEWS

Local church joins fight for African-American graveyard

Coalition is asking city to preserve South Philly site that contains thousands of bodies.

 Workers excavate a tombstone inside the Bethel Burial Ground in Queens Village, South Philadelphia. |

by Sarai Flores 22 April 2014

A coalition of more than 65 activists have caused the city to halt $500,000 in renovations on the 124-year-old Weccacoe playground in Queens Village after the discovery of an historic cemetery unearthed the remains of more than 5,000 African Americans. 

Joining in the fight is the Church of the Advocate, located on 18th Street several blocks from Main Campus, which has hosted weekly meetings of the Friends of Bethel Burying Ground, who support preserving the graveyard.

The Friends of Bethel Burying Ground has asked the city to replace a nearly 200-year-old, six-inch water main located at the beginning of the burial ground that has the potential to wash out the graves located underneath if broken. The activists have also asked the city to dismantle a small building housing urinals that have been determined to be right above the graves, schedule an engineering study, replace the fencing around the perimeter of the burial ground and work with the coalition to commemorate the African Americans buried there.

“The fact that the City of Philadelphia has had to be persuaded to secure this valuable and significant historic site, as it would any other in Philadelphia County, is telling,” said Joseph Certaine, the leader of Friends of Bethel Burying Ground. “At the Bethel Burying Ground, the remains of the interred lay just inches below the surface. We don't want any further desecration of these graves.”

The Rev. Renee McKenzie-Hayward, vicar to the Church of the Advocate, said the city should take the burial ground more seriously. “From our perspective we say our ancestors are buried in this and so this is sacred ground and we just want it to be treated in that kind of way.”

The Bethel Burial ground became one of the first privately owned African-American cemeteries when it was purchased by the trustees of the Mother Bethel Church in 1810 for $1,600 as a third of an acre of land outside the city limits to be used as a cemetery. At the time, blacks were not allowed to be buried in cemeteries with whites. The property was active until 1864 when Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner reported the cemetery was “not credible to us as a church.” The trustees of Mother Bethel later sold the cemetery to the city for $10,000 in 1889, when it was turned into Philadelphia’s first ‘pocket park’ for children.

“If there were revolutionary soldiers buried here that they didn’t know about, if there were white Union Civil War heroes buried here, would you walk over them?” said Terry Buckalew, an independent historian who specializes in 19th century Philadelphia African-American history.

“Would you allow people to walk over the graves?”

Buckalew discovered the cemetery eight years ago while working on a documentary about civil rights activist Octavius Catto. After searching through cemetery return records, Buckalew was able to find information on 2,500 individuals buried there. In 2013 the site was recognized as a historical marker and archeologists were able to conduct three investigations last summer confirming the remains through coffins, grave shafts and bodies.

More than two-thirds of the remains were identified as children who died of typhoid fever and tuberculosis. The remaining bodies were identified as many African-American leaders and pioneers that created one of the first free black communities in the United States, including Emilia Brown, Ignatius Beck and the Laws family.

Of the individuals identified only six living descendants have been traced.

“I’m for respecting anyone who has died and been buried in this area but I also think that one of the ways to celebrate what’s happened here is to let the children enjoy the space,” said Linda Scheffield, a resident on the 400 block of Catharine Street for 12 years, “I mean, this has been 100 years. There’s no one left down there to be bothered by the water drainage.”

Councilman Mark Squilla, whose 1st District includes the Weccacoe playground, said a study will be completed shortly on whether or not to abandon the six inch pipe or determine if the Philadelphia Water Department can replace it.

The burial ground takes up one third of the site and stretches from the entrance of Queen Street to the alleyways in Laurence Street.

“This debate about desecration, that’s out of our hands, we’re only saying our playground work doesn’t overlap the cemetery,” Duncan Spencer, the chairman of the Friends of Weccacoe Playground said. “Whether there’s traction to the argument that children shouldn’t be playing above it I don’t know.”

A community conversation about the future of the burial site will be hosted by Mayor Nutter’s administration on May 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the African American Museum of Philadelphia on Seventh and Arch streets.

Sarai Flores can be reached at sarai.abisag.flores@temple.edu.