The grounds at Hollywood Cemetery in South Memphis have become overgrown, complicating efforts to maintain the site.
A Cemetery Swallowed by Neglect
The cemetery has become choked with brush, and volunteers have organized cleanups and removed rubbish from the grounds.
Locating graves at the overgrown cemetery can be difficult, particularly where markers are obstructed by trees and brush.
Blues Royalty and Civil Rights History Rest Here
Hollywood Cemetery is the resting place of legendary blues musicians and other Memphians, according to the outlet's reporting. Among them are Walter “Furry” Lewis and Frank Stokes, pioneering country blues musicians, according to the Memphis Flyer. The National Park Service describes Stokes's work with Dan Sane and the Beale Street Sheiks through its Lower Mississippi Delta Region program.
The cemetery's roots run deep into Memphis's segregated past. Founded in 1909 along Hernando Road, Hollywood Cemetery was established as the city's second designated Blacks-only cemetery during the era of Jim Crow segregation, the Memphis Flyer reports. It also serves as the final resting place for numerous Memphis sanitation workers who took part in the historic 1968 sanitation strike, according to the Black Cemetery Network.
Questions Over Cemetery Oversight
The cemetery's operating company dissolved, but the Memphis Flyer reports that the company remained responsible for upkeep under state law.
Tennessee Code § 46-1-312 provides that the Davidson County chancery court may appoint the commissioner as receiver upon a petition by the commissioner under specified circumstances, including impairment or insolvency, according to Justia Law. The receivership suspends the original corporate authority and empowers a receiver to stabilize the property.
Trust Fund Sits While Money Question Lingers
Money for upkeep may already exist, but who can spend it remains murky. First Horizon Bank holds Hollywood Cemetery's trust fund and can decide whether to disperse trust-fund money for legitimate cemetery improvements and care, per WREG's reporting. Families want that trust-fund money used for cemetery cleanup.
The cemetery's condition reflects broader concerns about the care of historic Black burial grounds in Shelby County.
Volunteers Fill the Gap
In the absence of a legal owner, volunteers have carried the load. Group MUSE, an arts nonprofit, has worked to restore Hollywood Cemetery, mobilizing recurring cleanups through its Hollywood Cemetery Project and taking early steps toward seeking formal historic preservation status, according to the Memphis Flyer.
Music heritage groups have also tried to keep the site's legacy visible. The Mt. Zion Memorial Fund placed a memorial marker for Frank Stokes at Hollywood Cemetery in 2016, while the cemetery also has a headstone for Furry Lewis, the Memphis Flyer reports.
