On a roughly 4-acre patch of land, north of downtown Durham, Debra Taylor Gonzalez-Garcia walks through one of Durham's first historically Black cemeteries.
"I'm gonna show you this, there's a much better example but I don't know if we're going to get to the other side," Gonzalez-Garcia said as she directed me to where a previous revitalization effort took place but was unsuccessful, leaving a cracked headstone in Geer Cemetery.
Established in 1877, Geer Cemetery was one of the first historically Black cemeteries in Durham and the only one from its era still in existence today. The cemetery's last burial occurred in 1944 after efforts by the local community to expand it were denied and the city-funded Beechwood cemetery opened five miles away.
"That along with eventually condemning it sort of added to the demise of Geer Cemetery because now there was a separate but equal cemetery," Gonzalez-Garcia explained. "That was city supported (with) taxpayers money including those of African Americans, so a lot of burial started going there. We actually had some, we know of some removals from here."
The cemetery sat for decades. Gonzalez-Garcia described how trees damaged headstones, and ivy grew up over walkways.
"Over time it was used as a garbage dump, when we finally got up there we found everything from car parts to mattresses," she said while pointing to the now-cleaned headstones.
In the early 2000's, community members started organizing to preserve and maintain the cemetery. In 2019, they started the nonprofit Friends of Geer Cemetery - a group of community members and descendants of folks buried in the cemetery. Gonzalez-Garcia is the president and a professional genealogist.
She's been researching stories of people buried in the cemetery for years. She said her research familiarizes her with many stories of those buried in Geer Cemetery.
As we walked through, she showed me the remains of more than 1,500 stories in Geer Cemetery: Some cracked headstones, some stones leaned against trees, some uprooted stones and flags sticking out of the ground representing a possible burial site marked from a recent archaeological survey.
Gonzalez-Garcia talked about various founders of historic churches in Durham who are buried in Geer Cemetery.
"White Rock Baptist Church, we have Margaret Faucette one of the people instrumental in starting that who is buried here and the Markham's Edian and Millie Markham who are also buried here," Gonzalez-Garcia explained.
She shares more stories of laborers, church leaders, entrepreneurs and educators, many of whom were formerly enslaved and foundational to the history of Durham, all buried in the midst of Geer Cemetery.
"I think one of the things in terms ... of our, especially our African American youths, we aren't always given those models of people who did do good things, who accomplished those things. We don't hear their stories. But the stories are here, and the stories are within our communities all over the place," Gonzalez-Garcia said.
The Friends of Geer Cemetery feel that history is something others should know about. That's why, this summer, they submitted a nomination for the cemetery to the National Register of Historic Places.
Gonzalez-Garcia said Geer Cemetery's listing on the National Register is of great importance to the Friends of Geer Cemetery.
"When we started, we realized, in order to build and get community and get descendants we needed to inform," said Gonzalez-Garcia. "So we build our programs on that, and that was a very key part of the plan is like, 'let's get the recognition as high as we can get it.'"
The National Parks Service maintains a list of properties across the country based on a variety of aspects of historic significance. Geer Cemetery's listing on the register would add it to around 3% of sites recognizing African American history and culture.
The Friends of Geer Cemetery partnered with Preservation Durham, a local nonprofit in the area to apply for funding from a hurricane relief grant offered through the state. Julianne Patterson, the executive director of Preservation Durham, said there are specific inequities in the preservation movement that the group hopes to address.
"The representation amongst sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places is very white and so that's something that I think we need organizations like Preservation Durham to be involved with both highlighting that that lack of representation exists but then also prioritizing changing that," Patterson said.
To receive a nomination on the register, sites must prove their historical significance. This means passing multiple levels of review through the city to the state and then for approval from the National Parks Service. This long process, in addition to the money it costs, is often why many sites are unable to pursue listing on the national register. Eric Plaag, a historical consultant in Boone, said he is very familiar with this process.
"There are dozens of historic properties in the country that are torn down every day. And each time we lose a property, we're losing a piece of the past, we're losing our connection to what came before and our communities," Plaag said.
In her time spent preserving cemeteries, Gonzalez-Garcia said she has seen many that are not as fortunate as Geer Cemetery.
"There are other cemeteries that are fighting tooth and nail just to not be drowned, not to have water put into it, be completely erased, have buildings put on top of it," Gonzalez-Garcia said.
Sites that make it on the national register often have something in common: People that are passionate for its preservation.
"My hopes are is that we're not just an organization here today, here tomorrow, five years, we're here 200 years from now, that there's something in place to keep this space what it should be," Gonzalez-Garcia said.
In a crowded, busy section of Durham, Geer Cemetery sits as a reminder of the past while community members continue to advocate for a brighter future. A future full of recognition and awareness for the lost stories of Durham.
