Clemson finds unmarked graves of slaves in campus cemetery

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) - The possible locations of hundreds of unmarked graves have been discovered in a Clemson University cemetery, including those of slaves and Black men whose hard forced labor built the campus long after the Civil War.

The graves are thought to be of those enslaved at John C. Calhoun’s Fort Hill Plantation from about 1830 to 1865, as well as sharecroppers and convicts leased from the state to construct campus buildings from 1890 to 1915, the university said in a statement Monday.

Researchers used radar technology to identify the possible locations of at least 215 bodies in Woodland Cemetery, the university graveyard beside the school’s football stadium, where Calhoun’s family and university employees also are buried.

Researchers had long known that unidentified bodies of African-Americans were buried among the graves of prominent university figures, and previous efforts to locate their graves had been attempted. The new total announced on Monday includes recently discovered graves beyond a previously-identified area, on the south end of what was once Calhoun’s plantation, The Post and Courier reported.

Lead researcher Paul Anderson said more graves are expected to be uncovered. Testing has revealed more disturbed soil roughly five feet beneath the surface, and they could be identified as burial sites “in the coming weeks and months,” Clemson said.

Students sparked a renewed push for recognition of the graves, by raising concerns about the state of the unmarked plots in a fenced-off, littered area, The Greenville News said. In March, the university committed to maintaining the graves and the students said they were designing a memorial for them. The university also plans to share the stories of those buried there in a website.

“We are committed to taking all the critically important actions to enhance these grounds, preserve these grave sites and to ensure the people buried there are properly honored and respected,” Smyth McKissick, chairman of the Board of Trustees, said in the statement Monday.

The university, meanwhile, has been under pressure to address the racist legacy of Calhoun and his ties to the school. A former U.S. vice president and supporter of slavery, he once called the practice a “positive good.” The university stripped his name from its honors college in June.

Rhondda Robinson Thomas, a Clemson professor who researches African-American literature and history, said she would be notifying local people whose ancestors may be buried in the cemetery, news outlets reported.

“My research shows that Black lives hardly mattered at all at Clemson until after desegregation,” she said. “And the discovery that we made in this burial ground tells me that Black deaths mattered even less. The thing that I found is that Black labor mattered the most on this land.”