St. Louis Catholic cemetery discovers unmarked graves
Two organizations will join together to commemorate and read the names of 1,630 free and enslaved black people buried in unmarked graves at St. Louis Cemetery in Louisville on Feb. 24.
These people were buried between 1867 and 1937.
The unmarked graves are in a field hidden behind thousands of family plots and covered by trees.
"This was the section designated for black Catholics, and the first burials in this plot began in 1867," said Ned Berghausen, theology teacher at Assumption High School and deacon at St. Agnes Catholic Community. "The trees were planted at the very beginning of the cemetery as a visual marker that it was a segregated plot. That it was literally separated from the white parts of the cemetery."
There are thousands of unmarked graves on a site of less than one acre.
"From that part of the hill down the slope to the bottom of the hill and then back to the top of the hill. It's about three-quarters of an acre," Berghausen said.
Shortly after the protests in 2020 over the death of Breonna Taylor, Berghausen found the obituary of a black Catholic woman who had lived an amazing life. This discovery led him to her burial site, where she was buried with the family that enslaved her. He then discovered several more names of people, but their burials were under a patch of grass.
"When I first came here, you know, it looked like an undeveloped field that would be used later when the rest of the cemetery was filled in. But, you know, in the course of these conversations, I discovered that no, there are actually people already buried here, and a lot of them. It's just that for the most part they're without plaques," Berghausen said.
It was January 2021. His curiosity centered on the role of the Catholic Church in enslaving people.
"I am a Catholic with roots in Kentucky. I am a member of the Catholic clergy. I'm a deacon, and in my own history, I discovered that some of my ancestors who lived in central Kentucky and practiced Catholicism enslaved people. It wasn't talked about in my family before." said Berghausen.
Upon realizing this discovery, he felt that he needed to act.
"I went to the cemetery and went through the burial books to find as many people buried in those two plots as possible. And in 13 months, I found 1,630 names," Berghausen said.
Names forgotten in history but now recognized and remembered. The event will be held on Saturday, February 24, at 2:00 p.m. at St. Louis Cemetery. It's called "Remembrance: Reading the Names." Organizers recommend arriving early to park and walk to the site. Seating is limited and organizers recommend bringing a chair.