Washington Park Cemetery, located in North St. Louis County, was once one of the largest African American burial grounds in St. Louis. It was founded during segregation in 1920, when Black individuals were often barred from burial in white cemeteries in St. Louis. Over the past century, it has been fractured, divided, and paved over by Interstate 70, the Metrolink, and the expansion of St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Over time, these developments have left the descendants of those buried at Washington Park with the decision to uproot their relative’s graves or to be paved over. Between 11,000–13,000 graves have been affected.
This neglect has left behind a fractured historic site, where the legacies of Black families from St. Louis remain at risk of being erased through continued disinvestment and lack of care.
Nine PBS Producer Leah Gullet has ancestors buried within the cemetery. Which prompted her to look into this issue further. In this video story, she set out to learn more about the current state of the park and what happened to it.
"I was stunned to not only see the current state of the land, but also the disregard for the history and feelings of many of us who have ancestors here,” she says. “After looking up a few of my ancestor’s plot information, we found that one grave was under the Lambert airfield in Section 15 and one in the overgrown area in Section 8."
When searching for the grave of her second great aunt, in Section 5, which had been cleaned up, they could not find the headstone. Many headstones have been destroyed or have sunk into the ground.
