Hungry goats help reveal past at historic African American cemetery
By Nakell Williams
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COLLEGE PARK, Georgia (WUPA) — Volunteers with the One Square Mile Project, Inc are making progress with their effort to uncover a hidden historic African American cemetery in College Park.
The cemetery is located behind Mount Calvary Baptist Church on JT Alexander Avenue. Monetary donations from the community enabled the group to have the Red Wagon Goats bring in more than a dozen animals to eat the kudzu that’s covering grave sites there.
“They are going to clear this whole kudzu area and hopefully get these folks out,” said Bre Johnson with Red Wagon Goats.
Workers set up a long fence to cover about an acre and a half where the goats will eat for two weeks. They’ll come back often to check on them.
“When we get down to about 10 to 20% greenery left, we start supplementing with hay so the goats don’t start feeling like they are in a state of scarcity and start thinking that the grass is greener on the other side,” Red Wagon Goats owner Megan Kibby said. “Goats’ mischief can be anything from staging escapes. I think we had one customer who left her basement door ajar, and she woke up and found goats in her basement.”
Craig Eberhart of the One Square Mile Project and other volunteers are urging the community to continue helping in any way that’s possible. Since the organization began uncovering graves by hand several months ago, he said they have discovered headstones dating back to 1925. They include African-American history makers, including the city’s first educators, veterans, morticians, and community leaders.
“There has been immense interest in the community about it. People are coming out, helping us maintain what we are doing. This is probably going to be a million-dollar-plus project, and we are going to need help from every aspect, not only from the community but from the local city government and from the state. We are asking that the airport be involved with it as well.” Eberhart said.
Kibby said the goats helped to restore several historic cemeteries across metro Atlanta.
“We are just really proud to be able to be a part of these efforts of getting these often neglected bodies of land and take care of the people who are here or people whose ancestors are here,” Kibby said.
Volunteers meet at the cemetery on Saturdays to take part in the clean-up. You can contact the One Square Mile Project for information about donations and volunteerism.
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