FACULTY FOCUS
A labor of love becomes a national landmark This spring, the National Park Service named Shippensburg’s Locust Grove Cemetery to the National Registry of Historic Places, acknowledging it as a significant historic site that reflects two centuries of African American history and culture in south-central Pennsylvania. The moment also recognized the collaborative efforts of Dr. Steve Burg, professor of history, Ship students, and the Locust Grove Cemetery Committee. Sometime before 1834, the African American community constructed the town’s first Black church, the Richard Baker AME Church. A cemetery, located on North Queen Street also was established. Originally a slave burial ground, the location later served the community’s growing free-Black population. The African American community continued to expand rapidly in the decades before the Civil War as the town attracted both free Black families and recently freed slaves from the South. The cemetery includes the graves of twenty-six African American Civil War veterans, including John and James Shirk who served with the 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments, as well as military veterans representing American conflicts from the Spanish American War through Vietnam. For over 100 years,
18
SHIPPENSBURG UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
the community has held a Memorial Day program to honor those veterans. Burg determined the location was eligible for the National Registry in 2011, based on research he conducted with students. In 2019, Burg and students in the Applied History graduate program prepared a formal nomination and supporting documentation to have the site listed on the National Register. This was
Dr. Steve Burg and Locust Grove Cemetery advocates at a State Historic Preservation meeting.
