Mount Olive Cemetery (Wilmington, Delaware)

Mount Olive Cemetery is a historic Black cemetery located in Wilmington, Delaware. Mount Olive was once one of the only places in New Castle County where African Americans were legally allowed to be buried.^[1] Many African American soldiers were buried in Mount Olive.^[2]

Mount Olive Cemetery can trace its roots back to Reverend Peter Spencer's church in Wilmington where Black residents were buried, starting in 1861.^[3][4] Later, there were a number of Black cemeteries in the downtown area.^[5] In the early 1900s, a project to move bodies from some of these cemeteries led to around 13,000 people being moved and buried at the first Mount Olive.^[5] In 1914, all Black cemeteries inside Wilmington city limits were condemned.^[3][5] A second location for Mount Olive continued to accept burials until the 1980s.^[3][5]

By the 1970s, efforts to clean up the cemetery were underway. At this time, it was overgrown and many of the monuments were in poor shape.^[6] A group to aid the care and upkeep of the burial ground, the Friends of Mount Olive, was formed in 1980.^[7][8]