Hear Together: Friends of East End Cemetery
The Friends of East End is an all-volunteer nonprofit established in 2017. They grew out of a cleanup effort that began in 2013 at East End Cemetery, a historic African American burial ground in Henrico County, Virginia. The sixteen-acre cemetery, founded in 1897, had been overwhelmed by dense overgrowth and illegal dumping.
With the help of thousands of volunteers, they have worked steadily for years to clear the vegetation, remove the trash, and recover more than 3,300 hidden grave markers of the estimated 70,000 people buried in East End and neighboring Evergreen. In partnership with descendants and the broader community, Friends of East End seek to transform these burial grounds into public sites of memory, contemplation, and beauty that honor Richmond’s African American past and present.
