Project Team
Research and Community Engagement Team
Telling an accurate history of the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery involves diligent and thorough historical research and outreach. The research and community engagement team works in libraries, archives, and in local communities to research important documents, listen to oral histories, and help recover the stories of individuals and families who may be buried at the site. The team also works to engage the public in these research, restoration, and preservation efforts.
Dr. Mandi Barnard, Research Historian
Dr. Sara Collini, Postdoctoral Fellow in University History
Marissa Davis, Graduate Research Assistant
Dr. Brian Stack, Community Engagement Assistant
Dr. Rhondda Thomas, Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature, Call My Name Faculty Director, and Coordinator of Research and Community Engagement for the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation Project
15 Undergraduate Student Researchers, Creative Inquiry in History: The Woodland Cemetery Preservation and Memorial Project, HIST 3890.003, Fall 2021
Community Engagement Council
Collaboration and partnership with the African American communities surrounding Clemson University is essential. Community leaders from the four local areas surrounding Clemson, including Anderson, Clemson-Central, Pendleton, and Oconee County, advise on local research, community outreach, and preservation and memorialization plans for the African American Burial Ground.
Anderson
J. T. Boseman
Jack Henderson
Nekaun Swinger
Dr. Beatrice Thompson
Clemson-Central
Rosa Grayden
Dalphene Jameson
Pastor Zackary Johnson
Pendleton
Terence Hassan
Oconee County
Shelby Henderson
Kathy Jenkins
Helen Rosemond-Saunders
Clemson University Board of Trustees Task Force
The Clemson Board of Trustees appointed a Task Force to develop a preservation plan for the burial ground.
David Dukes, Chair
Dr. Louis Lynn
Kim Wilkerson
Legacy Council
The Legacy Council, appointed by the Task Force, assists with the development of the preservation plan and with community engagement.
President Emeritus James F. Barker
Dr. James Bostic Jr.
David Dukes
Dr. Rhondda Thomas
Project Affiliates
Several people and organizations across campus, South Carolina, and the nation also contribute to this project by providing scientific and historical research, expert consulting, and advising. Their support is invaluable to the project.
Call My Name: African Americans in Clemson University History
Clemson University Special Collections and Archives
Preservation South and Summit Engineering, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Survey
Dr. Michael Blakey, NEH Professor of Anthropology, Africana Studies, and American Studies and Founding Director of the Institute for Historical Biology at the College of William & Mary
Dr. Lawrence Conyers, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Denver
Dr. Lynn Rainville, Director of Institutional History and the Museums at Washington and Lee University
