Photos: Sweet Olive Cemetery Resting in Ruins
When Markeda Cottonham imagines what the Sweet Olive Cemetery deserves, she pictures a manicured landscape, dotted with tombstones and historical markers memorializing the thousands of preachers, soldiers, and everyday men and women — some of whom were once enslaved — who were buried here over more than a century.
Instead, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial grounds is a blighted eyesore. Its tombs are overgrown with vegetation, cracked open and crumbling into pieces. The headstones — if they haven't toppled over — are well-worn and barely visible. A dented casket, rusted by the elements, sits exposed atop a pile of bricks.
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Markeda Cottonham, top center, mows the grass between the vaults and markers. Broken vaults are in the foreground. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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An angel adorns a vault. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Sign at the entry gates. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Markeda Cottonham talks about the broken vault at her feet. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Broken vaults. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Completely fallen in vault, background, with high brush and weeds behind that. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Looking through the ironwork fence. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site.Â
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Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Markeda Cottonham talks about the broken vault at her fingertips that is getting worse. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Bony remains are seen through a crack in a broken vault. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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An angel adorns a vault in the front. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Markeda Cottonham talks about the broken vault at her feet. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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The trash from cleanups is set out but not picked up in front of the main entrance. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Markeda Cottonham talks about her vision for a refurbished cemetery. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Overgrown brush covers up a portion of the cemetery. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Markeda Cottonham, top left, mows the grass between the vaults and markers. Broken vaults are in the foreground. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Markeda Cottonham talks about her vision for a refurbished cemetery. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Completely fallen in vault with high brush and weeds behind that. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Completely fallen in vault, right background, with high brush and weeds behind that. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Broken vault, foreground. Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.
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Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge's oldest Black burial ground, has suffered decades long disrepair at the historic site. Markeda Cottonham leads a clean-up in the cemetery Friday Feb. 19, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. The disrepair includes broken headstones, crumbling tombs, grass 6 foot tall and toppled trees.