Friday, January 10, 2014

In western Maryland, two African American cemeteries are witnesses to history

by Anne Raines, Capital Grants and Loans Program Administrator


Laboring Sons Memorial Ground
Just up the hill from the main street of Sharpsburg is a modest one-room board and batten structure, neatly painted white and crowned by a small bell tower, standing watch over a small and well-tended cemetery.

About 20 miles away, in the center of the city of Frederick, a quiet acre serves as the final resting place of over 1,500 individuals, commemorated by a prominent granite marker.

The sites, as different as they may seem, serve as significant monuments to the African American experience in western Maryland.