Palmetto Cemetery

Front inscription

Palmetto Cemetery opened in the 1920s as a community burial ground for local African Americans. Sited on former farmland, the roughly 17-acre graveyard was developed by Black funeral director Willis C. Johnson (1892-1969) and white insurance agent David G. Ellison (1879-1960), who acquired title to the property in 1928. At that time the cemetery was located just outside the Town of Eau Claire, which was annexed by the City of Columbia in 1955.

Reverse inscription

Palmetto Cemetery was later expanded to the north and today includes around 2,000 graves with a variety of funerary art. By the mid-20th century it was one of the most prominent African American graveyards in Columbia. Among those interred here are civil rights activists, educators, business figures, and other Black civic leaders. In 1979 families of those buried here formed the Palmetto Cemetery Assocation to manage the property. Burials continue to take place.