My 4th Stop: South-View Cemetery - APC Sacred Spaces Tour

I wasn't expecting this to be the highlight of the tour. Prominent Atlantans led us to graves of several extraordinary folks resting there.


Rev. Dr. Michael N. Harris pastor of Wheat Street Baptist Church.

South-View Cemetery was my next stop for the Atlanta Preservation Center's first "Sacred Spaces" tour. South-View was the first resting place of Martin Luther King Jr., here:

'The oldest African-American “non eleemosynary” corporation in the country (1886), South-View Cemetery is the final resting place for over 70,000 African Americans. Many of whom have made significant contributions to American history and the struggle for freedom and peace. Among the many notables are men and women who were scholars, business owners, pastors, professors, military heroes, musicians, athletes, and civil rights activists.'

It's on quiet rolling hilltops on Jonesboro Road, about 4 miles north of Scott's Antique Market. You've probably never been in the neighborhood just east of Lakewood.

Atlanta's Oakland and Westview Cemeteries have many extraordinary monuments. The wealth of South-View in the legacy of those interred there.


We gathered at the angel for an introduction by Dr. D.L. Henderson, a board member of Historic South-View Preservation Foundation, and of Oakland Foundation.


We hiked the hills.


We stopping at balloon marked graves.


We heard the histories.


We headed the the next one.


It was and impossibly beautiful late afternoon but warm enough that we sought the shade.


Our procession stretched out as the tour continued.


I was so fortunate to be there.