On Monday, Oct. 21, from 5 – 6 p.m., the College of Charleston will hold a ceremony to collect soil from the former site of the Brown Fellowship Society ceremony at Rivers Green, behind the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library. The soil will be collected by representatives of Brown Fellowship Society; CofC student and 1967 Legacy Scholar Zaaid Stroman, whose grandfather John Stroman was a civil rights activist and was a protestor who experienced the Orangeburg Massacre; and President Andrew T. Hsu. The soil will be incorporated into a permanent memorial for the Anson Street African Burial Ground that will be unveiled in the spring of 2025.
“Commemoration is an important part of the process of healing for a community,” says President Hsu. “By pulling together soil from ancestral burial sites around Charleston, we pay tribute to the past so that our present and future can be better.”
The Brown Fellowship Society used the cemetery at Rivers Green until the property was purchased by Bishop England High School. After the construction of the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library in 2008, a monument was created to honor those members of the Brown Fellowship Society buried on the property.
Continuing their efforts to honor African ancestors, the Gullah Society, now the Anson Street African Burial Ground (ASABG) project team, has collaborated with community members since 2017. Their goal is to honor the 36 African ancestors discovered at a burial ground during renovations of the Charleston Gaillard Center. The burial ground contained the remains of children, women and men that dated back to the 1760-90s. In 2021, sculptor Stephen L. Hayes Jr. was commissioned to design a permanent memorial for the Anson Street African Burial Ground. The memorial will feature a fountain bowl created using soil from 36 ancestral burial sites in and around Charleston.
Event Highlights:
- Location: Rivers Green, 71 Coming St, Charleston, SC 29401
- Master of Ceremonies, Bernard Powers, Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston, professor Emeritus of History
- 5 p.m. Welcome, President Hsu
- Special guests: Anthony O’Neil, Esquire, Brown Fellowship Society representative - History of Brown Fellowship Society and other organizations connected to this burial ground.
- 5:08 p.m. Opening prayer, Rev. David Washington, Old Bethel United Methodist Church minister.
- 5:40 p.m. Libation pouring, preceded by explanation – by Ervin McDaniel and Clifton Polite (ASABG)
- 5:47 p.m.: Soil collection
For more information:
- Brief History of the Cemeteries https://discovering.cofc.edu/
items/show/15 - Information at the ASABG Memorial https://www.asabgproject.com/
a-memorial-for-the-ancestors
