'The battle is almost over'

A person can't tell much about a place from outside a chain-link fence. Peeking through the links, one can't tell the history enclosed within, the ...

February 22, 2023
2:34 AM

A person can't tell much about a place from outside a chain-link fence. Peeking through the links, one can't tell the history enclosed within, the stories of the people who lived and worshiped there, who taught their children and buried their loved ones within the small, seemingly forgotten plot. In Staples, one such two-acre tract holds the history of a freedmen colony dating back to before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. This African American Cemetery — then known as the Staples Colored Cemetery — was the final resting place of early freedmen settlers who made their home in the area in the years surrounding the Civil War, with at least one marked grave dating back to 1847.