HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- On a cloudy Thursday morning last September, three people made their way through Woodland Cemetery in eastern Henrico County.
Two had been coming there for years.
One had not been there for decades.
What they walked past on their journey was indicative of the recent work that has taken place at the cemetery under the Woodland Restoration Foundation and the work that remains to be done.
As Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1916 and home to an estimated 30,000 graves, including luminaries like tennis great and Richmond-native Arthur Ashe, was among several historic Black cemeteries in the Richmond area that fell into disrepair and nature crept back in, swallowing up some of the graves on the 30-acre plot.
"The reason there were these cemeteries is back then the white cemeteries like Hollywood, like Oakwood, like Riverview didn't allow Blacks to be buried in there -- whites only," said foundation volunteer John Shuck. "And so, there were these separate cemeteries. Eventually, in the 60s and 70s, when the white cemeteries opened up to everyone, the number of burials in these cemeteries tend to go down. Because, for whatever reasons, they weren't as well maintained. They didn't get government funding or anything like that. It was, in most cases, it was up to the families to maintain their plot."
Since 2020, the restoration of Woodland has been under the leadership of the foundation which took over with the help of Henrico County.
One part of the work has been countless volunteers cleaning up and beautifying the cemetery. Organizers said they have cleaned up around 23 of the 30 acres.
"The volunteers have been fantastic with getting us to the point that we are right now," said foundation Executive Director Marvin Harris, who added they always need more support, both volunteers and financial, as the foundation is planning a capital-building campaign to improve the roads and turn the former chapel into a museum and education center, including teaching kids financial literacy.
The other part of the work is the actual rediscovery and recovery of the graves.
"We've got records that show probably half [of the graves]. But, the later records are scanty, let's say, not complete," said Shuck of the challenges. "We're still looking for more at the Library of Virginia because all the records that were here in the office up there got taken to the Library of Virginia back in 2017. But, all the records prior to 1929 have been lost. So the only way we know where somebody is buried here prior to that is by finding a grave marker."
To find those grave markers, Shuck combined old and new technology.
For the former, he flies a drone above the property on dry days and uses its camera to scan for patches of brown grass amongst the healthier, green grass.
"What's happened is the grass is turning brown above the grave shaft," explained Shuck. He added he would then go to those spots and prod the ground trying to find grave markers underground. "Because, what happened, these graves sunk in, and what we think is they came back and filled them in and, maybe, they didn't check to see if there's a gravestone when they filled them in. And now they end up eight to 10 inches deep."
If a gravestone or marker is found it will be cleaned and reset and the information and coordinates documented online. Shuck said they have recovered close to 5,000 graves.
The end goal is to restore the dignity of someone's final resting place and give their loved ones a chance to come back and pay respects.
"And we've had them actually come in and cry. Because they hadn't been able to see those headstones in 15 to 20 years," said Harris.
That Thursday in September, Harris and Shuck assisted Karen Norwood in finding the gravesite of her mother, Gloria Ann Norwood, whom she had not visited since at least 2003.
They were able to find a record of the grave online and the GPS coordinates took them to the still wooded section of the cemetery where having walked past sunken graves and dug through the underbrush, they found Norwood's resting place.
"Oh, man. I miss you so much," Norwood said as she bent down to kiss the gravestone.
"That's why we do this. I mean, to me, boils down to is helping families reconnect like this," said Shuck of that experience.
The foundation said that they are always looking for more support. They are also asking any descendants of people buried at the cemetery who might have photos or documentation of the plots to please get in touch with them to aid in their efforts.
