Courtesy of The Aiken Standard
Eyes on Aiken teamed up with Pine Lawn Cemetery to help clean up the historic graveyard to help preserve African American history in Aiken.
“The last cleanup was great, and I was pleased, but I wasn’t satisfied,” said LaShawn Ryans, co-founder of Eyes on Aiken. “I’m not going to be satisfied until all of it is done.”
Eyes on Aiken is a group created by Aiken residents Teresa Callahan and Ryans to help improve the Washington Circle neighborhood. They got involved with the cemetery to start cleaning it up more frequently with help from the community.
The last cleanup took place Oct. 21.
“That last cleanup was amazing in terms of the amount that we got done in one day because usually it takes a lot longer to get that much done and they really rallied a lot of people,” said Heather Peterson, who helps keep records for the cemetery.
Pine Lawn Cemetery was created in 1852 and was originally called the “Aiken Colored Cemetery.” Aiken used the site as the only public burial place for African Americans in the community, said James “Hallie” Holland, who takes care of the cemetery.
At the time, the cemetery was run by a group of churches called the Aiken Cemetery Association, Holland said. Slaves, veterans, schoolteachers and other members of the community were buried there.
“And it was really sort of crazy because there was no real land accountability or anything like that,” he said.
Each church had its own section at the cemetery to use, which has led to confusion over who owns the plots of land, Holland said.
In 1988, a group got together to incorporate the cemetery and changed its name to Pine Lawn Memorial Gardens.
“So that went on, and of course, as they died off, it became defunct,” he said. “All of these people were old people when they got involved. And unfortunately, the only people that are concerned about cemeteries are older people.”
In 2005, Holland helped to start a new group called the Aiken Visionaries to look after the burial ground. Out of about 13 members, Holland is one of the only ones still able to take care of Pine Lawn Cemetery because of age, death and illness, he said.
The cemetery was reincorporated in 2007 when it was renamed Pine Lawn Cemetery and added to the historical register, Holland said. In 2014, a sign was unveiled by the city that marked the cemetery as a historical place.
Pine Lawn Cemetery holds quarterly cleanups with the help of different organizations in Aiken, including USC Aiken, ROTC groups and firefighters, he said.
“The Masons come out every year and they always bring a lot of equipment, which is what we need,” Peterson said. “But Eyes on Aiken really got a lot of people out and they also got a lot of equipment, good equipment, because you can only do so much with weed whackers and little clippers and rakes.”
“This cemetery holds history,” Ryans said. “It holds value. It holds kinships, relationships, all of those things that should be very important to all of us.”
The group also underlined the importance of getting the younger generation out to help learn about the cemetery.
“Because we’ve got to now lay the importance of telling our children, them telling their children, so on and so forth, so that it does not get lost,” Ryans said. “And it’s crucial now. And I think Teresa and I both are very passionate about history, passionate about the cemetery.”
Newer members are starting to join the Pine Lawn Cemetery Board including Peterson and Raymond Wright, who works with American Legion Post 26.
He echoed the importance of getting younger people involved in the cemetery.
“Remember those that came before them and what they did to make their life a much better place to live,” Wright said. “The sacrifices that they made.”
Some notable figures buried at Pine Lawn include Josie Smith-Hazel, an educator and activist who is also the namesake of the Smith-Hazel Recreation Center in Aiken.
E.P. Stoney, a prominent politician during Reconstruction, is buried at the cemetery along with multiple veterans from the Civil War and both world wars.
The next cleanup will take place on Nov. 11 at Pine Lawn Cemetery in honor of Veterans Day since many of the cemetery’s occupants are veterans.
The cleanup will take place from 8 a.m. to noon. Ryans has plans on how to make the event more efficient and productive.
Each section will be divided up into colors and a group will be assigned to a color to achieve a more concentrated approach to cleaning up Pine Lawn, she said.
“We’re going to divide it up so that we can make sure that when we leave this time that all of it’s been touched,” Ryans said.
The groups are hoping to prepare the cemetery for the winter months and for the wreath hanging that is done around the holidays for veterans.
“This cemetery has a lot of Black history,” Ryans said. “It’s really important in terms of preserving that because Black history is American history.”
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