Freedman’s Village

The Civil War leaders of the Union buried soldiers’ bodies on the property in hopes that Lee would never want to return, and Parks’ ancestor dug the very first grave near the Freedman’s Village burial site.

Group fights for recognition of veterans resting at abandoned Jacksonville cemetery

Many of the sites, including Sunset Memorial, were owned by the storied Afro-American Life Insurance Co., which started in Jacksonville at the turn of the 20th century. The sites fell into disrepair as the company slid into bankruptcy through the 1980s, and when it shut down in the 1990s the burial grounds became overgrown and unorganized.