This vignette is a part of Mirror Indy’s reporting on Greenlawn Cemetery.
“We just have made some amazing discoveries about these people. African American people, people whose names have long been forgotten that we have now been able to resurrect, and we’re continuing to do that research.”
— Eunice Trotter, director of Indiana Landmarks’ Black Heritage Preservation Program
Eunice Trotter has spent much of her career as a journalist, author and now preservationist working on how to tell and preserve the stories of Black Hoosiers in Indianapolis and beyond.
Trotter, 70, said she was unfamiliar with Greenlawn Cemetery until she learned that Keystone Group’s Eleven Park development and a city bridge project could disturb remains there. She began learning more about the site, including an area of the oldest cemetery described in historical documents as a segregated section for the city’s earliest African American residents.
Since then, she’s been a driving force behind some of the research of African American burials at the site. The research has been challenging; records of burials at Greenlawn, which in reality contains four historic cemeteries, are few and far between, if they ever existed at all.
Trotter has enlisted the help of Duane Perry, a volunteer researcher with the Indiana African American Genealogical Group, to help investigate a list of more than 1,200 African American burials from a nine-year period, one of the limited sets of records available for such research.
“We just have made some amazing discoveries about these people,” Trotter said, “African American people, people whose names have long been forgotten that we have now been able to resurrect, and we’re continuing to do that research.”
Time is running out for any bodies that remain buried at the site. Neither the developer nor the city have plans to perform a proactive archeological dig, though city officials said they plan to require workers to use smaller tools and go through training in an effort to protect remains they may encounter.
As a preservationist, much of Trotter’s current work focuses on preserving sites as they are and honoring their historical significance. She recognizes the difficulties with these historic cemeteries — the site has long been industrialized, and there are no above-ground markers to aid in archaeological discoveries.
“As a historian, of course, I’m gonna respect and value that history. I don’t want it to be buried and covered up,” she said. “It is part of us as a people.”
Reach Mirror Indy reporter Emily Hopkins at 317-790-5268 or emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis.
Read more
The search for who’s buried at Greenlawn Cemetery, before it’s too late
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