Restoring Woodlawn One Section At A Time
Imagine reminiscing about a love one that has been gone for some time and deciding to head to their burial place to pay homage but when you arrive you have noticed the gate is locked with chains around the entrance. You hop over a gate and notice that the weeds from the grass have sprouted up over the tombstones and graves, trash and bottles have been thrown over onto the grounds of where your love one rest. No running water to wet the grounds as the stems of the trees are brittle covering the tombstones of your love ones, as the grounds do not resemble any form of resting for those who are buried. Woodlawn was established in 1869 in the city of Compton California was one of the very first burial grounds for people of color. This cemetery is historic for its long history of establishment since 1869 which was during the Jim Crows laws which prohibited blacks and whites from sharing the same cemetery.
This cemetery is historically known as the final resting place of 18 Civil War Veterans, one black panther and two famous pioneers in history. One of most famous performers during the 1930’s Freeman Davis of Brother Bones. Freeman Davis was an American whistling and bone playing recording artist best known by his stage name Brother Bones as well as “Whistling Sam”. The cemetery is also well known for the resting place of Francis Everett Townsend who created the “Townsend Plan” which was a pension plan for senior citizens to receive two hundred dollars a month during the great depression, these two historic men graves were located underneath the ground recovered by one woman and her name is Celestina Bishop.
Celestina Bishop is the founder of the non-profit organization called One Section At A Time with partner and co-founder Michael Baker. The two longtime friends came together after sharing both had a loved one that was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. One unexpected day the two decided to hop the gate and to beyond their surprise noticed the negligence of the burial grounds. The cemetery has been dormant for the past couple of years due to a scandal of misappropriation of funds and movement of burial plots and graves for profit. Since then the cemetery which resides over thousands of individuals going back to the civil war has remained closed and unkept. Celestina Bishop is praised for reopening the grounds allowing individuals to find their love one burial stones and restore the cemetery to it standing grace.
For more information on Celestina Bishop and Michael Baker’s non-profit organization ONE SECTION AT A TIME please check Facebook and Instagram under that exact name or log onto Facebook and look for Ms. Bishop under Demanding A Change At Woodlawn Cemetery Compton. Please remember the African proverb “If we stand tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of many ancestors”.
