South-View Cemetery ensures over a century of Black Atlanta's history isn't forgotten
A cemetery once described as "tainted" has grown into one of the largest and most historic burial grounds in Atlanta, holding more than a century of Black history.
South-View Cemetery was founded in 1886 by formerly enslaved Black men who were denied the ability to bury their loved ones in White cemeteries. According to oral history preserved by the South-View Cemetery Association, when the state asked neighboring landowners whether a Black cemetery should be allowed on land along Jonesboro Road, the response changed everything.
"Oh, they've already buried that Black baby over there, so the land is tainted, and so it worked in our favor that we were able to get chartered," said Winifred Hemphill, president of the South-View Cemetery Association.
Hemphill said the cemetery initially spanned just 25 acres of farmland in southeast Atlanta. It has since expanded to more than 100 acres. Today, more than 80,000 people are buried at South-View.
Hemphill is the great-granddaughter of Albert Watts, one of a small group of men credited as founders of the cemetery. She said South-View grew alongside Atlanta itself, becoming a final resting place for people from all walks of life, from everyday families to some of the city's most influential leaders.
Civic leader John Wesley Dobbs is among those buried at South-View. Dobbs is also the grandfather of Atlanta's first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson.
"John Wesley Dobbs was the grand master of the Prince Hall Masons, and he was credited with registering over 10,000 African Americans to vote in Georgia," Hemphill said.
The burial site of Herman J. Russell, a major Atlanta developer who helped shape the city's skyline and quietly supported the civil rights movement, can also be found at South-View.
"He bankrolled a lot of the people who went to jail and helped build the Georgia Dome and many buildings in Atlanta," Hemphill said.
South-View also temporarily held the remains of national figures whose final resting places would later be moved. Dr. Benjamin E. Mays was briefly buried at South-View before being relocated to Morehouse College, where he served as president for more than two decades and mentored generations of leaders.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was also temporarily buried at South-View before his body was moved to the King Center. While King was buried there, a 24-hour guard was assigned to protect his gravesite. Even so, someone fired gunshots into the tomb, shattering part of the structure.
King's mother, Alberta Williams King, is buried at South-View. She was killed in 1974 while playing the organ during a church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Many of South-View's above-ground mausoleums are built from Georgia marble, quarried in north Georgia. The stone reflects how a place once labeled as tainted came to hold some of the finest materials in the state.
Parts of the historic cemetery are designated as non-perpetual care, meaning funds were not set aside for long-term maintenance when the land was first developed. Hemphill said donations now help preserve older monuments and ensure the stories buried at South-View are not forgotten.
South-View Cemetery remains a place of remembrance and reflection, standing as a record of Black Atlanta's past and the determination of those who fought to claim dignity in death.