Mt. Zion Cemetery: From turmoil to tidy

There was plenty of excitement around the late, Wilmington-born jazz great Clifford Brown last week.

Thousands of jazz fans gathered downtown for the city's five-day Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, which boasted a lineup that included a real draw: Grammy-nominated soul singer Andra Day.

But Day's soaring voice was no match for the actual headliner of this year's festival: the rebirth of the historic black Mt. Zion Cemetery, which is the final resting place for not only Brown, but about 1,000 others dating back to the Civil War.

For years, the cemetery withered after the old Mt. Zion AUMP Church in Wilmington closed, leaving behind the Mt. Zion Cemetery Association, which was first formed in 1903. But the final remaining member of that group died about 15 years ago, county officials learned as they began to ferret out responsibility.

Even though Harmon Carey, head of the Friends of Mt. Zion, has led volunteer-driven cleanups at the cemetery for 20 years, it was no match against the growing disrepair.

Over time, tombstones toppled and grass overgrew as trash and weeds fought for space in the graveyard, which is located just outside Wilmington. By 2014, the wooden sign at the cemetery's entrance was broken in pieces, half of which hung haphazardly on a rusted chain-link fence.

STORY: Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, cemetery campaign to begin

Through the work of volunteers, New Castle County officials, local businesses and nonprofits, the cemetery has been turned around.

A sturdy new fence with brick bases now surrounds the cemetery along Lancaster Avenue, and a new metal sign greets visitors, reminding them that the cemetery was founded in 1864. (It was relocated to its current location in the early 1900s.)

Groundhogs that roamed under the cemetery were ousted by specialists, and now county crews regularly swing by the cemetery for upkeep, mowing the lawn and keeping any weeds at bay. The broken-down path that circles the cemetery was replaced with a new roadway, donated by New Castle-based Greggo & Ferrara Inc.

In addition, it will benefit from $6,000 grants given to the Wilmington-based Delaware Center for Horticulture through the Arbor Day Foundation and TD Banks' TD Tree Days program. The nonprofit DCH will use the funds to plant trees at the cemetery in October and has committed to future beautification efforts, says DCH Executive Director Vikram Krishnamurthy.

"The whole goal is to make it as beautiful as the [Silverbrook Cemetery] across the street," says New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon, who ordered $47,000 from a contingency fund for special projects to help get the cemetery back in shape.

The revival of the cemetery comes as fans have been paying their respects to Brown, drawn by the 60th anniversary of his death on June 26. The trumpeter, known as "Brownie," died at the age of 25 in a car crash as his career was blossoming. Before his death, he had played with everyone from Charlie Parker to Dizzy Gillespie.

The next step for the cemetery is setting up a perpetual fund, allowing the newly reformed Mt. Zion Cemetery Association to take over the job of upkeep from the county. And Gordon says he's already in talks with a donor with possible interest.

The resurrected cemetery association currently has seven members, including its president, Delaware Court of Common Pleas Chief Judge Alex Smalls. Carey is the association's vice president, and Brionna Denby, who had worked on the project as assistant county attorney, is secretary.

Paula Hearst, president of the Black Cemetery Restoration Civic Association, is also on the Mt. Zion Cemetery Association board. She formed the Black Cemetery Restoration Civic Association in recent years to help refurbish long-forgotten Delaware historic black cemeteries in disarray.

Her group's work helped spur action at Mt. Zion as they began investigating responsibility for the graveyard. And once the work at Mt. Zion is complete, the retired Hearst says she will target another cemetery in need, possibly the nearby Mount Olive Cemetery.

Hearst says the emotional payoff at Mt. Zion after more than two years of work has been especially sweet: "It really feels good to drive by and see the fruits of our labor."

In addition to the county's support, Mt. Zion was recently awarded a $10,000 grant through the Delaware Distressed Cemetery Fund. The money will be used to fix and clean toppled tombstones, some of which fell because of deteriorating wooden coffins that caused some gravesites to collapse and sink, Carey says. A monument in the cemetery also will be restored.

About 200 U.S. military veterans are buried at Mt. Zion, and plans are afoot to properly honor the fallen who have been interred at a cemetery that many would consider a disgrace.

"We want to add a flagpole with a lighted flag, 24/7," Gordon says.

Carey, also founder and executive director of the Afro-American Historical Society of Delaware, says he could not stand the sight of the cemetery in such disrepair, spurring him to start his cleanup efforts more than two decades ago.

With the majority work at Mt. Zion only a few months away from completion, a sense of satisfaction has replaced despair.

"As an African-American whose ancestors are buried at the cemetery, I think we as African-Americans had a responsibility to maintain the cemetery and take leadership in its restoration," he says. "It's so gratifying that this dream has finally come to being. It looks better now than it has ever looked."

Contact Ryan Cormier at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).