Roughly 275 graves belonging to formerly enslaved Black tenant farmers on a Virginia tobacco plantation are being relocated to accommodate industrial development.
However, the decision to do so has sparked mixed reactions among the sharecroppers’ descendants, especially since this isn’t the first time Black burial sites have been displaced in the name of progress.
Opposers argue that disturbing the graves disrespects those who were enslaved and exploited during their lifetimes, while supporters hope that the remains’ identification will finally allow for a dignified reburial.
Despite the conflicting feelings, archaeologists have already begun exhuming the 275 graves, according to NBC News.
Plans for a cemetery a mile away from the original site are also underway. For now, the exhumed remains, many of which belong to tenant farmers and their families, are being held at a funeral home as they await their final resting place.
Officials have also been working closely with the descendants to discuss genetic testing for unidentified remains and gather input on the design of the new cemetery, which will include a memorial archway to honor those who were laid to rest.
“I don’t think anybody would want their ancestors exhumed or moved,” said Jeff Bennett, whose great-great-great grandfather is one of the many buried at the plantation.
“But for them to give us a lot of say so in the new cemetery, down to the design details and the plaques and memorials that we put up, I feel like (they’re) really doing it in a dignified way, in a respectful way.”
He added, “I feel like we’re reemphasizing the significance of our ancestors. It’s been generations since people used that area to bury people. And now we’re rediscovering their stories. And hopefully, we can continue to tell those stories to the next generations.”
Still, for many descendants, the plantation’s brutal history makes the relocation of these graves difficult to accept. The Oak Hill plantation, owned by Samuel Hairston, was part of a vast family empire that thrived on slavery and, later, sharecropping.
According to The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, a 1999 book by Henry Wiencek, the Hairston family controlled 45 plantations and farms across the South, enslaving thousands of Black people, many of whom took the Hairston surname, partly because they had no other name to claim when the government collected census data.
“It just seems that 100 or so odd years after their death, there’s still no rest,” Cedric Hairston, another descendant, shared with NBC News.
Despite the generations of families buried on the land, which is mostly marked by moss-covered stone, the Pittsylvania-Danville Regional Industrial Facility Authority now controls 3,500 acres of it.
The agency plans to develop a $1.3 billion battery production facility on the former plantation, which would bring in over 2,000 jobs as well.
According to Black Enterprise, Virginia courts approved the graves’ removal under the assumption that descendants supported the decision. However, many still seek long-overdue recognition for those who lived and died at Oak Hill.
To facilitate the process, the industrial authority secured $1.3 million in funding and brought in consulting firm WSP to oversee the project. They plan on holding a dedication ceremony after transferring the graves later this month.
