In 2012, Chari Bostick established Grace Heritage Community Development to steward historic Southern Hills Cemetery (also known as 6th Street Cemetery) in Gadsden, Alabama. Southern Hills is one of the oldest cemeteries in Etowah County. It was established in the early 1800s as a burial ground for enslaved Africans. Southern Hills later became a leading cemetery for Gadsden’s African American community. However, in the late 1950s an urban renewal initiative dislocated a large African American community near the cemetery and soon after the cemetery began to experience neglect.
Grace Heritage Community Development serves as the steward of historic Southern Hills Cemetery, working to document, collect, preserve, and advocate for this important site. The organization maintains an expanding database of over 800 burials at Southern Hills and a growing archival collection of primary sources and materials related to those interred there, the former African American community that once existed nearby, and Gadsden’s wider African American community. Grace Heritage’s preservation efforts include groundskeeping, headstone restoration, site mapping, and various other initiatives. The organization also actively works to safeguard Southern Hills from development and other potential threats.
Grace Heritage Community Development 