South-View: An African American City of the Dead

By D.L. Henderson

The story of Atlanta's South-View Cemetery begins in 1886 when African Americans challenged the city's segregated burial practices by forming the South-View Cemetery Association. For years, African Americans had objected to the conditions they were forced to endure in Atlanta's racially segregated cemeteries. South-View's founders were determined to provide a place where African Americans could be buried with dignity.Historic cemeteries like South-View are microcosms of society, and the lives and deaths of the people buried in South-View reflect the social history of Atlanta. The monuments and grave markers in the oldest part of the cemetery reflect the influence of Victorian funerary art as well as African American vernacular memorial traditions. A variety of gravestone materials, from elaborate monuments of marble and granite to simple markers of concrete and brick, memorialize African Americans from all social strata.South-View's historic landscape includes the burial sites of many prominent African Americans who founded and developed Atlanta's historic churches, businesses, and colleges. A few of South-View's most notable burials include Alonzo Herndon, founder of Atlanta Life Insurance Company; Rev. & Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr., religious and civil rights leaders; Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, African Methodist Episcopal Church organizer; and Julian Bond, social activist, scholar, and civil rights leader.This richly illustrated history of South-View Cemetery includes 180 photographs and historic images detailing the heritage of this timeless landscape. The volume also contains more than 350 biographical entries documenting the lives of the notable as well as lesser known figures in Atlanta's African American history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0998577200
• ISBN13: 9780998577203
• Release Date: March 2018
• Publisher: Carrelspin
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.0" x 10.0"