Cemetery Citizens: Reclaiming the Past and Working for Justice in American Burial Grounds

by Adam Rosenblatt

Across the United States, groups of grassroots volunteers gather in overgrown, institutionally neglected cemeteries. As they rake, clean headstones, and research silenced histories, they offer care to individuals who were denied basic rights and forms of belonging in life and in death. Cemetery Citizens is the first book-length study of this emerging form of social justice work. It focuses on how racial disparities shape the fates of the dead and what kinds of repair are still possible. Drawing on interviews, activist anthropology, poems, and drawings, Adam Rosenblatt takes us to gravesite reclamation efforts in three prominent American cities. The cemeteries in this book are not only sites for preserving undervalued pasts; they are also urgent places of political struggle and radical imagination. Cemetery Citizens dives into the ethical quandaries and practical complexities of cemetery reclamation, showing how volunteers build community across social boundaries, craft new ideas about citizenship and ancestry, and expose injustices that would otherwise be suppressed. Rosenblatt asks what kinds of belonging draw people to this work, who considers themselves a descendant, and what kind of public space a marginalized cemetery can become. Ultimately, he argues that an ethic of reclamation must honor the presence of the dead―treating them as fellow cemetery citizens who share our histories, landscapes, and need for care.

Genres: Nonfiction

286 pages, Paperback

Published April 30, 2024

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a smart book about an important topic. It's amazingly well written, and moving at parts, as well. Highly recommended.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so touched by this book. Adam handles the topic of marginalized cemeteries with so much grace and care; this book truly opened up a new world for me. I'd read it again in a heartbeat.