Huntsville is adding an important piece of its history to the federal registry. Glenwood Cemetery is being recognized as the oldest surviving African American cemetery in the Rocket City. Being listed on the National Register of Historic Places is no easy process. The cemetery was founded by the city in 1870 so it has been a challenge to find complete records on all the individuals buried in Glenwood which includes many who were born slaves. Katie Stamp is a Preservation Planner for the City of Huntsville. She mentions the long road that it takes to get listed to the National Register.
“Originally, they did not make a plot of the cemetery and they did not keep records until 1950 so if you can imagine how many generations people were buried there, and we didn't have information on those until much later,” she said. “So, that's been a big part of the research process to get it listed to the National Register.”
It has been a challenge to find complete records on all the individuals buried in Glenwood. Stamp mentioned the importance of her team in the long process of national registration. One of those people is Mrs. Ali Conley who has worked for years documenting African American History in Huntsville. According to Stamp, Conley’s work led to commendations from both President Clinton and President Bush. “In the time where she was teaching at the Academy for space and foreign language school, she actually had her students come out and work on documenting the known names of folks that we knew that were buried out in Glenwood, and getting just gathering as much information as she could. And that started as early as the 1990s,” Stamp said.
