Lexington County, S.C. — A historic African American cemetery established for enslaved parishioners of St. Michael Lutheran Church will be rededicated Nov. 1 after nearly a decade of work to restore and preserve the burial ground.
The service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 1 at the cemetery on Windward Point Road. St. Michael is inviting descendants of the roughly 160 people buried in the quarter-acre cemetery, along with the nearby Pleasant Spring AME Church congregation and community members with family ties to the land.
Afterward, the church will hold a 3 p.m. organ recital in its sanctuary at 400 River Road featuring its refurbished Hook organ, originally built in 1865, followed by a reception in the fellowship hall.
St. Michael began the restoration work in 2017, clearing overgrown vegetation and cleaning and repairing weathered headstones. The two congregations have held joint workdays at the site.
St. Michael Lutheran Church was founded in 1814, and Pleasant Spring AME Church was founded in 1869 by formerly enslaved African Americans. The cemetery was largely unused after 1920.
Church history records list members known as the Colored Members of St. Michael in parish records of the 1830s.
