Jacksonville University, along with local leaders, unveiled plans to commemorate an African American burial site on its campus, starting with a new headstone for a Civil War veteran, Cpl. William Johnson.
Unmarked cemetery on Jacksonville University campus highlights lost Black history
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The old cemetery no longer has any headstones. They have all been gone for decades.
The cemetery was only discovered by chance in the late 1980s when an employee at JU happened to discover the lone remaining headstone. That headstone was for William Johnson, a former black soldier in the Civil War.
“He was a slave here in Jacksonville. And on his enlistment papers, he lists Yellow Bluff as his birthplace. Which is as you probably know the place right under the Dames Point Bridge on the north end,” said retired JU History Professor Craig Buettinger.