JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Moncrief’s mission to revitalize the Memorial Cemetery continues.
The Memorial Cemetery in Moncrief is where many of the River City’s iconic Black leaders are buried, including Florida’s first Black millionaire.
They’re asking you to help clean up the resting grounds of local Jacksonville legends.
Volunteers are asked to join the Jacksonville Urban League Young Professionals and Memorial Cemetery cleanup coordinator Randall Jackson for their beautification project.
The Event
- What: Clean-Up Day
- When: Saturday, April 12 (9:30-11:30 a.m.) Doors open at 9:20 am
- Where: 6073 Moncrief Road, Jacksonville, FL
Be sure to bring a water bottle, gloves, rake, trash bag, and wheelbarrow.
All ages are allowed to participate.
History
Memorial Cemetery was established in 1909 by Leo Benedict, a treasurer at Benedict and Pollack Co., who gave up ownership of the cemetery just two years later in 1911 to the Memorial Cemetery Association.
The cemetery is located in the Moncrief Cemetery District at the intersection of Moncrief Road and Edgewood Avenue.
Memorial, Sunset Memorial and Pinehurst Cemeteries were also developed and managed by the Pensions Bureau of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, so that Black people could have burial options when Jacksonville was still segregated.
Members of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company also established American Beach.
Memorial Cemetery used to be considered a burial site for the upper echelon of the Black community.
With more than 6,000 graves, this cemetery, along with Mount Olive Cemetery, New Mount Herman Cemetery, and Greenwood Cemetery, were the main burial grounds of the Black community.
Six members of the Lewis family, including Abraham Lincoln Lewis, founder of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, are buried in the 1939 Art Deco style Lewis Mausoleum in Memorial Cemetery.
The Lewis Mausoleum was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Here are some notable figures who are buried there:
- A.L. Lewis: Founder of Afro-American Life Insurance Company and American Beach
- Emmett Reed: First Black Chief Recreation Supervisor during Jacksonville’s segregation era
- Bishop Henry Tookes: Ordained as Bishop in Florida AME Church, resident of Sugar Hill and original owner of the iconic Gamma Rho Omega Chapter’s Sorority house, “AKA House” on 8th Street
The Moncrief area was well known for its role as Jacksonville’s entertainment industry throughout the first half of the 20th century.
By the 1960s, many of the entertainment and recreational businesses were no longer active.
Around this time, residents began complaining that the cemeteries on Moncrief Road were decreasing.
Today, the Moncrief area is considered one of the most impoverished areas in Jacksonville, and has a high number of abandoned buildings, along with a high rate of unemployment, crime and homicides.
In the 1980s, the Lewis family was having issues maintaining all of the properties.
So by 1986, Abraham Lewis’ son, James Lewis, signed over ownership of the properties to Memorial Cemetery Inc., which is a local nonprofit.
It is the largest of a cemetery district that serves as the burial ground for 70,000 early 20th-century African Americans.
It was not long before they ran out of money required for the perpetual care of the cemeteries, and the city of Jacksonville then took over its upkeep.
To sign up to volunteer for the clean-up event, click here.
To sign up for JULYP, click here.