Ever-too-Green

contemporary issues

Ever-too-green

by Kathleen Brown Photos by John Shuck

Venture to Church Hill’s Evergreen Cemetery of Richmond, where notable historical figures like Maggie L. Walker were buried, and prepare to be shocked. Not only is the historical African American cemetery completely overgrown with fast-spreading weeds, there’s trash everywhere, a result of looting and serious maintenance funding and perpetual care mishaps stemming from the 1970’s.

John Shuck is a retired Richmonder who has devoted countless hours organizing to get Evergreen back in decent shape. The moral interventions of this guy are admirable and worth emulating.

“I’ve been working with genealogy all my life,” said Shuck. “With the advent of digital cameras, there’s a website, findagrave.com, which I used to start looking at Evergreen, went out there, and tried to find clean-up projects.” His wife, Debbie fully supports her husband in his endeavors.

Pick a time, any time, and John Shuck is bound to be out at Evergreen, distributing the brushclearing tools, paid for out of his own pocket, from the bed of his cobalt Chevy pickup truck. Then, as sunlight filters through the pines, melting layers of frost from the dappled ground, he prepares to take a group of VCU or VSU student volunteers on a tour of the , revealing riveting bits of history not mentioned in the public school system. One of these points includes a discussion on the absurdity of segregated cemeteries. Shuck updates his Facebook page with pictures of clean-ups each weekend, including a brief summary of the day’s events. Shuck and his recruits have discovered various antiques, including old glass Coca-Cola bottles, rusted cans from different brands of beer, shag carpets stuck in the ground by surrounding tree roots, random buttons and knick knacks galore. Some have compared the clean-up at Evergreen to an archeological scavenger hunt. It may be fun to find these so-called “artifacts” but it’s humiliating to know that such land has been so shamelessly spat-upon due to ignorance and blatant acts of societal prejudice. Is the city of Richmond poorly distributing money for its public property? If something so important, chock-full of precious history, and sentimental as Evergreen has been ignored all this time by the city’s legislators, while Hollywood Cemetery, historically white and just miles from Evergreen, prances around all crisp and clean, something’s seriously wrong here.

In March 2010, CNN journalist Phil Riggan wrote, “I was given a tour of a forgotten land. It would have been more encouraging if it had been in a Central American jungle and we were looking for the ruins of a Mayan temple. No, it was Richmond, and we were seeking the ruins of what was supposed to be a symbol of blacks finding a measure of equality.”

Go back eight years prior to Riggan’s visit, and you’ll find a message thread on an online forum with hundreds of views, one of which, by Eric Alfredson, states: “Is anyone aware of the effort to restore this large “colored” cemetery in the Richmond, Va (Henrico) area? It is a large cemetery with tremendous over growth that is being cleared (at least 5 years worth) with a limited number of volunteers. This will become a fabulous story,”

Today much progress has been made, thanks to volunteer efforts, but less than half of the cemetery has been cleared. Even seemingly small victories are a big deal to Shuck and his cohorts, such as when Richmond Road, which once served as a navigable pathway through Evergreen, was discovered underneath the rapidly growing vegetation.

A more personal discovery by Shuck and his volunteer team was noted in the Henrico Citizen newspaper. Richmond native Welford Williams’ mother is buried at Evergreen, and he remembers the days when the burial grounds were “nothing but grass and headstones.” Williams spoke disappointedly about how his mother’s grave site became lost in the wild brush over the years. Shuck et al rediscovered it in their efforts to preserve the site, which proved to be an emotional, overjoyed event for Williams and his family.

Shuck became interested in Evergreen partly due to his self-described slightly compulsive tendencies. Acknowledging the indelible marks of racism in this country’s history, he explains his thoughts and motivations, void of self-flattery and pompousness. He doesn’t blame the ignorant looters for dirtying and disrespecting sacred grounds, nor the erred allocation of funding in the city, he just gets out there and teaches what he knows, and plays what he feels is his current true calling- his role in humanity. This is philanthropy at its finest.

“Something that’s messed up… I’ll leave it for a while then it needs to be cleaned up,” Shuck states, suggesting his incentives reach beyond a desire for cleanliness and order in the world as he speaks of Bonnie Davis, a VCU journalism professor and published author who has written books on historically black places of burial, namely, Here I Lay My Burdens Down: A History of the Black Cemeteries of Richmond, Virginia.

Shuck agrees that Davis’ writing sets the perfect stage for action, adding, “Part of the surmise is to get volunteers out there. The student population’s been great; I’ve actually got some girl scouts coming out soon,” he amusingly notes.

John affirms that although he, in his seventies, may be a main coordinator for the project, “As far as volunteers, It’s gonna be cleared by the young folks.”

It’s obvious that Shuck will not be shaken in his virtuous quest. As Richmonders, we have an opportunity to restore a smidgen of the diverse racial integrity (which never should have been lost) to this part of the city, and show that we care for and value those who have passed away in this state’s capital. And when the painful history of racism flares up, we have the responsibility to diminish it. As a community, it is our duty to make sure that justice is equally distributed among each and every member.