A new exhibit showcasing the Southwest Cemetery, also known as the city’s Black cemetery, opened this week at the Eudora Community Museum.
The exhibit was put together by KU researcher Grace Awbrey and includes an old headstone, the cemetery’s history and data collected through a ground penetrating radar.
The radar was used to find any unmarked burials at the cemetery but Awbrey said more research is still needed to narrow the data. Based on the surviving headstones, as well as old obituaries and city records, Awbrey knows there are at least 65 people buried at the cemetery, but is still working to find the accurate number of burials.
Awbrey is hoping to place two signs at the cemetery: one listing the names of those buried at the cemetery and another to pinpoint where the unmarked burials are.
“Their stories deserve to be told,” she said. “There’s a significant lack of detail about those who might be buried there. The cemetery, as it currently stands, provides visitors with no historical perspective, and there is no indication that it is an African American cemetery.”
