STARKVILLE — On the south side of University Drive, there is a manicured three-acre cemetery, complete with shining headstones and flowers. On the north side, there is another two-acre cemetery, which from the outside appears to be a line of bushes, a single bench and a field full of collapsing headstones.
The contrast between the city-owned Odd Fellows and Brush Arbor cemeteries convinced assistant professor of anthropology Jordan Lynton Cox to create an MSU field school dedicated to digitally archiving the history of the latter. She, along with three other anthropology and archaeology faculty, will use a nearly $350,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation and Access Grant for the project.
“There’s a vibrant and long history that is central to the history of Starkville and Mississippi that is literally eroding away in front of us. However, other parts of Mississippi’s history are being preserved,” Cox said. “What’s important for me as an anthropologist is to make sure that we advocate for a full recording of history, where everybody’s story gets to be preserved and gets to be at the table.”
Brush Arbor, formerly known as Starkville Colored Cemetery, is a historic landmark, with the oldest burial marker dating back to the death of Jimmie Cooper in 1882. He was just 15 years old when he passed, according to a historic marker at the site, and is buried beside his parents who died after him.
The most recent recorded burial was for Frances Winston in 1954.
The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014, and after a community push, was added to several map apps in 2020.
But these recognitions have not prevented the site from experiencing what Cox called “structural violence.” She was first alerted to the cemetery’s decaying condition by anthropology and archeology graduate student, Cassidy Rayburn.
“The Brush Arbor cemetery had unfortunately suffered from a great deal of vandalism in the past, and this vandalism has continued throughout my research project,” Rayburn said. “There were several headstones broken throughout the property when I first arrived in Starkville, and I observed several headstones being broken since last spring.”
Over the next three summers, groups of 10 students will be paid to work in the cemetery to create a digital archive of Brush Arbor. The first group will arrive this July.
“We are going to be reaching out to students from historically underrepresented groups, especially in anthropology and archival preservation, and training those students in nondestructive … methods,” Cox said. “We do not want to, in any way, disrupt the cemetery.”
The field school will be using ground penetrating radar, oral histories and geographic information systems analysis to build the digital archive. But Cox emphasized that their study methods will need local residents’ involvement to be successful.
“We hope that with the data we collect and the interviews that we collect, that we can both create a digital space that is online and that people can have access to that preserves a lot of the aspects of this site, train students in how to do this work in other sites across the country, and also be able to make arguments in the future about … a larger grant that will help to (physically) preserve the cemetery long-term,” Cox said. “… There needs to be community buy-in. As faculty members who are not from Starkville, and most of us not even from Mississippi, we do not want to be the ones to tell them what (preserving) the site will look like.”
Cox hopes to partner with many organizations in the research process, including the J.L. King Center, the NAACP and local churches. Representatives from those institutions will meet with students throughout the process. The field school will also be holding annual community days to discuss the research with citizens.
“… This cemetery is filled with individuals that are family members, parents, siblings, etc., and their life and burial place deserves to be protected and preserved,” Rayburn said. “… The individuals interred at the Brush Arbor cemetery and their narratives are important to the history of Starkville and should be actively represented to the public.”
Mayor Lynn Spruill has displayed support for the field school on behalf of the city. She wrote a letter endorsing the project during the grant submission process.
“The city of Starkville recognizes the importance of preserving African-American cultural sites in our community and welcomes this opportunity to collect, restore, and archive the historic characteristics of Brush Arbor Cemetery,” Spruill wrote. “Your proposal to utilize the cemetery space to train future anthropologists, create a digital archive, connect with descendant communities, and create community awareness of Brush Arbor Cemetery aligns with the city’s vision for this historic site.”
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