View complete article and references at Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina at: https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/202

Description: This monument is composed of a large, natural rock with a rectangular bronze plaque commemorating the names of those known to have been buried there from the mid-19th century to the early 1930s.

The cemetery has an additional memorial commemorating the cemetery and those who are buried but whose names remain unknown, The Margaret Lane Cemetery Memorial. This memorial is located on the west side of the cemetery at the corner of Margaret Lane and Hillsborough Avenue.

Image of setting

Inscription:
Image of inscription

Dedication date: 11/1/1987

Materials & Techniques: Stone, bronze

Unveiling & Dedication: The monument was dedicated on an autumn day in 1987.

Subject notes: This memorial was dedicated following the restoration of the cemetery in 1987 by the Town of Hillsborough.

The cemetery is also known as the Old Slave Cemetery and the African American Cemetery.

Controversies: According to a pamphlet prepared by the Town of Hillsborough, in the late 1970s a group interested in building a church on the site discovered that the town did not have a deed for the land. The group filed for a quit-claim deed which the town countered and won, enabling it to retain title to the property.

Location: The lower entrance to the Margaret Lane Cemetery sits on South Occoneechee Street in Hillsborough. The cemetery is bounded on the north by Margaret Lane and on the west by Hillsborough Avenue. The stone and bronze marker sits in the center of the cemetery on the slope just up the rise from the Occoneechee Street entrance. The bronze plaque faces the east side of the cemetery.

Landscape: The marker sits in the open, grassy clearing of the cemetery just beyond the shade of a large old oak tree.

City: Hillsborough

County: Orange

Subjects: African American Monuments