This vignette is a part of Mirror Indy’s reporting on Greenlawn Cemetery.
As a Ph.D. student in pan-African studies, Leon Bates said he has focused on the parts of history that get overlooked.
“I’m a historian, but I’m also trained to look at history from an African American perspective,” said Bates, 64. “What’s the part that’s not been told before? Or what’s the part that keeps getting left out?”
A research project on the Confederate monument that once sat in Garfield Park led him to researching the historic cemeteries referred to in shorthand as Greenlawn Cemetery, where the monument once stood.
That line of research became all the more relevant when Keystone Group and city officials revealed redevelopment plans on the site of those cemeteries, including an area which records say was reserved for African Americans during the 19th century.
Bates has become an outspoken advocate for excavating grounds of the cemetery. He’s not against developing the site — he said he would like it preserved as a greenspace, but he recognizes how that’s unrealistic for such a large piece of land so close to downtown — but he believes a full archaeological dig should happen first to respectfully relocate any human remains before anything else is built on top of them.
“For me not to speak up and say something would not just be foolish, it would be to not understand and honor those that paid sacrifices for me to be able to be here and do what I’m doing,” he said. “But again, I think everybody ought to be moved. It doesn’t matter to me who they are.”
A correction was made on May 2, 2024: A previous version of this story misstated Leon Bates’ academic title. He is a Ph.D. student.
Reach Mirror Indy reporter Emily Hopkins at 317-790-5268 or emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis.
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The search for who’s buried at Greenlawn Cemetery, before it’s too late
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