Dark Branch Cemetery to be dedicated following restoration work

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) - A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at Dark Branch Cemetery starting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, to commemorate restoration work on the site.

Headstones have been cleaned, the road has been grated to be accessible to all vehicles and a new sign has been installed. The cemetery is located at 4140 River Road SE, Winnabow.

“In April of 1873, The Historic Cemetery was dedicated to the community by the settlement’s co-founder Frank Brown, a former slave on Kendall Plantation, who purchased 128 acres of land in Town Creek from his former enslaver, W.G. Curtis. Today, the Cemetery, a sacred African American burial ground, and lands that surround it are at risk of being desecrated by development with no regard for the surrounding community and local context, a trend that is part of a prevailing pattern throughout Brunswick County, as well as the nation,” a Dark Branch Descendants Association announcement states

The DBDA is a descendent-led organization that represents the only surviving freedom settlement near the Orton, Kendal and Lilliput Plantations in eastern North Carolina.

“On February 15, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and the National Park Service (NPS) added DBDA as one of the newest NPS Reconstruction Era Network members. Dark Branch is one of four sites in North Carolina and the only descendant-led member in the state. The network consists of more than 100 sites nationwide,” the announcement continues.

Some of the people who settled in the Dark Branch worked as sharecroppers on rice plantations, sometimes the same plantations where their ancestors were once enslaved.

“The lands they owned have been kept in family hands for generations. The Descendants Association’s new partnerships helped to document this lineage and re-center the lived experiences of enslaved and free African Americans living along the Lower Cape Fear River.”