Black Cemetery Citizenship: Memory, Place, and the Stakes of Care

What does it mean to practice Black cemetery citizenship in places burdened by erasure yet sustained through community care? In this session, Cory France presents their capstone project, Scenes at the Stakes, which explores descendant-led efforts to preserve Palmetto Cemetery, a historic African American burial ground in Columbia, South Carolina. Bridging immersive fieldwork, historical research, and oral accounts, the project examines how Black communities hold ground, confront loss, and reclaim memory beyond conventional preservation frameworks. Framed through the concept of “the stake,” this work draws from Black studies, cultural sustainability, and critical heritage theory to reimagine care for Black burial grounds as a radical and regenerative practice.

Cory J. France is a cultural strategist, writer, and preservationist. They currently serve as a historian and architectural historian at New South Associates, where they contribute to historic resource surveys, community engagement, and cultural landscape documentation, with particular experience in African American heritage and underrepresented communities. Cory is also a fractional consultant with the Rich Land Historic Preservation Consortia, a nonprofit advancing descendant-led preservation and Black heritage landscapes across the South. They serve on the board of the WeGOJA Foundation, South Carolina’s premier African American heritage organization. Their work bridges research, partnerships, community care, and critical place-based storytelling, grounded in the theoretical frameworks of historic preservation, cultural sustainability, and strategic communication.