Rockefeller Institute to Show Film about Historically Black Cemetery

Share

PETIT JEAN MOUNTAIN, Ark. — Winthrop Rockefeller Institute will feature a special showing of a short film that documents a four-year effort to preserve and protect a local, historically black cemetery.

Buried Treasures: The Stories of Bold Pilgrim Cemetery will be shown Friday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. in the Rockefeller Institute’s Rock Theater on Petit Jean Mountain. The 26-minute film, directed by Dee Curry and photographed by Ted Curry, describes the Bold Pilgrim Cemetery Preservation Association’s work to conserve and maintain the graveyard.

Bold Pilgrim Cemetery is the final resting place for over 550 members and descendants of a group of African-Americans who migrated from South Carolina to the rural countryside of Morrilton, Ark., in the 1880s. They established farms, businesses and churches in a community united by a common burying place.

The preservation project involved several organizations including the Rockefeller Institute’s AmeriCorps members and the Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Station at the Rockefeller Institute. Scholars and experts from the University of Central Arkansas, the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton, Howard University in Washington, D.C., and others participated in the effort. Much of the funding came from the African-American Cemeteries Preservation initiative at the Arkansas Humanities Council.

Major project participants and members of the descendant community will be present to answer questions. The event is free and open to the public.

To learn more about this event and other archeology programming at the Rockefeller Institute, contact Dr. Skip Stewart-Abernathy, the Rockefeller Institute’s Arkansas Archeological Survey Station archeologist, at (501) 727-6250. More information is also available by clicking here.

Winthrop Rockefeller Institute of the University of Arkansas System is an educational institute and conference center. Committed to acting as a catalyst, its vision involves combining the legacy and ideas of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller with the resources and expertise of the state’s largest university system. Its mission is to develop diverse programs that nurture ideas, policies and activities to make life better in Arkansas.

The Rockefeller Institute accomplishes its mission by offering a variety of workshops, seminars, public lectures, conferences and special events. Program areas include agriculture and environment, arts and humanities, economic development, and policy and public affairs. To learn more, call (501) 727-5435, visit the Web site at www.uawri.org, or stay connected on Twitter and Facebook.