News Update: Dedication of grave markers for enslaved people postponed to Sun. at 3pm

{Photo Credit: Thomas Martin/Davidson Local}

See the news brief video here. {Thomas Martin/Davidson Local}

The rain may have delayed the ceremony, but it couldn’t wash away its significance.

Originally scheduled for Thursday, June 19, 2025, at 6 p.m., the long-awaited dedication of Lexington’s enslaved gravesite will now take place Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Lexington City Cemetery on North State Street, directly across from the Pastor’s Pantry.

The gravesite—once a neglected patch of land, now transformed into sacred ground—holds 32 unmarked graves of enslaved men, women, and children. A granite marker at the site reads: “In this large vacant space before the Civil War, Negro slaves were buried by their masters.” It has long stood in quiet contrast to the nearby graves and monuments.

The site’s reclamation began in 2020 when local activist Tyrone Terry mentioned its history to his pastor. On the third Sunday in February of that year, members of St. Stephen United Methodist Church held a Christian Committal service. That act of reverence became an annual tradition.

Though the site was never a secret—in the 1980s, teachers even brought 4H students there for local history lessons—it was largely unrecognized by the wider community. Ground-penetrating radar later confirmed 32 burial sites. Their names remain unknown, as do the names of their descendants.

Since 2021, community commemorations have grown, led by members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and Zeta Phi Beta sororities. Joined by clergy, city leaders, and neighbors, they’ve shared songs and prayers that give voice to those once silenced.

Thanks to generous donations—especially from Grace Episcopal Church—the site now includes benches, flower urns, and 32 cross-marked gravestones. A newly installed granite monument is etched with words from Revelation 7:14: “These are they…”

It is fitting that this dedication will now happen on the weekend of Juneteenth, a time when communities across the country celebrate the end of slavery. In Lexington, that freedom is now linked to remembrance—etched in stone, marked in faith, and witnessed by those who refuse to forget.