PUBLIC "-//Library of Virginia//TEXT (US::Vi::05445::A Guide to the Pleasant Shade Cemetery (Hampton, Va.) records, compiled 2012-2018)//EN" "05445.xml" A Guide to the Pleasant Shade Cemetery (Hampton, Va.) records, compiled 2012-2018 Pleasant Shade Cemetery (Hampton, Va.) records, compiled 2012-2018 54206 Trenton Hizer Library of Virginia © 2024 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved. Machine-readable finding aid derived from MARC record by Trenton Hizer, 12 September 2024 Description is in English A Guide to the Pleasant Shade Cemetery (Hampton, Va.) records, compiled 2012-2018 A Collection in the Library of Virginia 54206

Library of Virginia 2024 Trenton Hizer Library of Virginia Descriptive Summary The Library of Virginia Pleasant Shade Cemetery (Hampton, Va.) records, compiled 2012-2018 54206 1.4 cubic feet (4 boxes) English John Mitchell, Mary Kayaselcuk, and Selma Stewart Administrative Information Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Pleasant Shade Cemetery (Hampton, Va.) records, comp. 2012-2018. Accession 54206. Cemetery records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Artistine Mears-Lang, Hampton, Virginia, and Mary Kayaselcuk and Selma Stewart, Newport News, Virginia.

Historical Information

Pleasant Shade Cemetery, comprising over 20 acres, is the oldest and largest public African American cemetery located on the lower Virginia Peninsula. It is a combination of three earlier burial grounds, Mount Zion (1888), Pleasant Shade (1908) and Holly Grove (1918), and contains an estimated 15,000 burials, of which only a portion have been identified. After its owners abandoned the cemetery, Darnell Lang (1954-2024) and Artistine Mears-Lang founded the East End Neighborhood Association to organize volunteer efforts to save and maintain the cemetery. The cemetery has been divided into 14 sections to make identification of burial sites easier. The cemetery is the resting place for many prominent African American leaders of Hampton and Newport News, Virginia, including James A. Fields (1844-1903), member of the Virginia House of Delegates; attorney and social justice pioneer Joseph Thomas Newsome (1869-1942); evangelist Lightfoot Soloman Michaux (1885-1968); and Jessie Menfield Rattley (1929-2001), the first woman and African American to serve on the Newport News City Council and as mayor of Newport News.

Scope and Content

Cemetery records for Pleasant Shade Cemetery, the oldest African American public cemetery on the Virginia Peninsula. Information compiled 2012-2018 by John Mitchell, Mary Kayaselcuk, and Selma Stewart. Provides name and burial information for identified burials in the 14 sections of the cemetery listed by section and by alphabetical order. Includes information on veterans, notable persons, and persons born in the 1800s.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Series I: Sections Series II: Veterans Series III: 1800s Series IV: Notables Series V: Marker surveys Series VI: Alphabetical Series VII: Search Series VIII: General and miscellaneous Contents List Sections. 1-2 Extent: 2 boxes. Section 1-Galilee--Maps, photographs 1 1 Section 1--Galilee--Burial by row and plot 1 2 Section 1-Galilee--Early births, 1800s, veterans 1 3 Section 2-Shiloh 1 4 Section 3-Ephesus--Map, veterans, burials-verify, 1800s, early briths, notables, blank pages 1 5 Section 3-Ephesus--Burial by row and plot 1 6 Section 4-Philippi--Veterans, 1800s, clergy, notables 1 7 Section 4-Philippi--Burial by row and plot 1 8 Section 5-Antioch 1 9 Section 6-Beulah 1 10 Section 7-Mt. Carmel 1 11 Section 8-Corinth 1 12 Section 9-Jericho--Maps, photographs, old sheets, statistics, correspondence, copies, blanks, additions 1 13 Section 9-Jericho--Burial by row and plot, revisions and additions 1 14 Section 9-Jericho--Early births, blank sheets, additions, maps 1 15 Section 10-Cyprus 1 16 Section 11-Canaan 2 1 Section 12-Gilead 2 2 Section 13-Gethsemane--Maps, markers, burial by row and plot (rows 1-10) 2 3 Section 13-Gethsemane--Burial by row and plot (rows 11-20) 2 4 Section 13-Gethsemane--Burial by row and plot (rows 21-28) 2 5 Section 13-Gethsemane--Veterans, early births, miscellaneous, maps, early births, 1800s, masons, notables, row 17 (draft) 2 6 Section 14-Samaria 2 7 Veterans. 2 Extent: 1 box. Veterans 2 8 1800s. 2 Extent: 1 box. 1800s--Section 1-Galilee 2 9 1800s--Section 2-Shiloh 2 10 1800s--Section 12-Gilead 2 11 1800s--Section 13-Gethsemane 2 12 1800s--Early birth sheets-blank and Galilee, 1800 sheets-blank 2 13 1800s--Earliest births 2 14 Notables. 3 Extent: 1 box. Notables--Maps, statistics, and burials 3 1 Marker surveys. 3 Extent: 1 box. Section 1-Galilee--Rows 1-3 3 2 Section 1-Galilee--Rows 4-6 3 3 Section 1-Galilee--Rows 7-9 3 4 Section 1-Galilee--Rows 10-12 3 5 Section 1-Galilee--Rows 13-16 3 6 Section 1-Galilee--Rows 17-19 3 7 Section 1-Galilee--Burial information form/request 3 8 Section 1-Galilee--Revisits, maps, photographs 3 9 Section 1-Galilee--General papers 3 10 Section 2-Shiloh--Notes, rows 1-4 3 11 Section 2-Shiloh--Rows 5-7 3 12 Section 2-Shiloh--Rows 8-11 3 13 Section 2-Shiloh--Rows 12-16 3 14 Section 2-Shiloh--Rows 17-19 3 15 Section 2-Shiloh--Rows 20-22, extra entries, notes 3 16 Alphabetical. 3-4 Extent: 2 boxes. Photographs, article, map, statistics 3 17 A 3 18 B 3 19 C 3 20 D 4 1 E 4 2 F 4 3 G 4 4 Miscellaneous papers from notebook A-G 4 5 Maps from notebook A-G 4 6 H 4 7 I 4 8 J 4 9 K 4 10 L 4 11 M 4 12 N 4 13 O 4 14 Photographs, maps, papers from notebook P-Z 4 15 P 4 16 Q 4 17 R 4 18 S 4 19 T 4 20 U 4 21 V 4 22 W 4 23 X 4 24 Y 4 25 Z 4 26 Search. 4 Extent: 1 box. Maps, search sheets, notecards, miscellaneous 4 27 Book of statistics 4 28 Search requests 4 29 General and miscellaneous. 4 Extent: 1 box. Alphabetical listing of burials (draft) 4 30 Research on burials, statistics 4 31 Newport News death register--African American burials 4 32 Photographs on CDs 4 33 Aerial photograph 1