Greenwood Cemetery

This article is about the cemetery in Woodlawn. For the Pratt City cemetery, see Fraternal Cemetery. For the Tuscaloosa cemetery, see Greenwood Cemetery (Tuscaloosa)

Greenwood Cemetery is a 17-acre cemetery located off of Messer Airport Highway, north of Forest Hill Cemetery in Woodlawn. It adjoins University Avenue, which once led to the campus of Payne University.

It was historically reserved for African-American burials, and became the resting place of three of the "Four Little Girls" killed in the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church. A shared marble headstone honoring their memory was donated in 1990 by Ken Mullinax.

The owners of the cemetery went bankrupt and the property deteriorated with damaged graves sometimes leaving human remains exposed. In 1998 relatives of one of the bomb victims, Addie Mae Collins, reported that they were unable to locate her grave site.

The City of Birmingham became de facto caretaker in the 1990s, and has contributed several times to maintenance of the neglected cemetery.

The cemetery was damaged in the April 2011 tornado outbreak and the city contributed another $25,000 in emergency services for repairs and clean-up.

Notable burials

• Carole Robertson (1949-1963), moved from Shadow Lawn Cemetery in 1974
• Addie Mae Collins (1949-1963)
• Wallace Rayfield (1873-1941), architect
• Cynthia Wesley (1949-1963)

References

• Bryant, Joseph D. (July 4, 2011) "Birmingham spends $250,000 for cemetery care." The Birmingham News

External links

• Greenwood Cemetery at Findagrave.com