The Durham County Board of Commissioners on Monday approved a two-year lease that will lead to the acquisition of the state’s oldest and largest burial ground that holds the remains of enslaved Black people before Emancipation.

During a morning work session, the commissioners approved a lease with Cameron Grove Holdings for the Cameron Grove Cemetery in northern Durham County that will conclude with the acquisition of the property at the end of the lease term. 

Municipal ownership of the historic cemetery aligns with the county’s “mission of protecting historically and culturally significant lands,” along with “environmental sensitive open spaces,” including, “significant forests, farmlands, water quality priority lands,” according to the county’s website.

The county’s open space program mission also takes into account protection of historic trading paths, archeological sites, and historically significant cemeteries. 

As Jane Korest, Durham County’s open space and real estate manager explained during the work session, transferring ownership from a private entity to a municipal government means the cemetery would be eligible for state and federal grants not typically available to private owners. Grant money could go towards potential restoration of the cemetery and marking unmarked gravesites.

“This would open the door to doing that,” Korest told the board.

The Cameron Grove Cemetery has great historic significance and also signals the county’s official involvement in the ongoing community interest, as previously reported by the INDY, in restoring old Black burial grounds scattered throughout Durham.

“The County,” according to its website, “has an opportunity in taking on the stewardship and responsibility of Cameron Grove Cemetery to ensure that this sacred and historically significant site is preserved, stewarded and up-lifted to help tell the whole story of our county and its people.”

The 4.5-acre cemetery sits in the Treyburn community in the 5100 block of International Drive, and was part of the Stagville plantation. 

The forced labor camp covered over 30,000 acres and at its height, held about  3,000 people in bondage, according to the county’s website and is both “culturally and historically significant.”

Currently, 160 acres of the original plantation is in public ownership as the Stagville State historic site, where it serves as “a source of education and interpretation.” 

But the county’s elected leaders and staffers note that there are several culturally significant sites associated with Stagville that are not currently protected, including the Cameron Grove Cemetery, according to the website. 

County leaders note that the cemetery continued to be used for burials after emancipation by Cameron Grove Baptist Church until the church moved to Bragtown in the 1940s. The cemetery is estimated to include several hundred graves, most of which are not marked.

The website notes that since mid-spring, county staffers have been working with a committee comprised of members with the Stagville Descendants Council and local historians who want “to ensure that the cemetery becomes publicly protected and that appropriate, sensitive maintenance and restoration could be undertaken.”

Cameron Grove Holdings has agreed to initially lease the property to the County for $1 per year with an option to purchase the property at the end of the two-year lease for $1. 

County leaders say the overarching goal is to “protect…and provide a reverential and culturally sensitive site for the descendants and others.” 

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Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.