CONCERNS ABOUT 200-YEAR OLD CEMETERY

A Smith-Brown Memorial Union food court employee Roberta Etienne expressed heartfelt concern for Sweet Olive Cemetery and its condition.
Etienne explained how she and her husband were simply joy riding and suddenly stumbled upon the cemetery, located on America St. off North 22nd Street.
According to Etienne, she witnessed broken crypts and vaults placed on top of one another. She also noticed graves located so close together that they were touching. Etienne even took it upon herself to take pictures of what she witnessed and introduce it to the DIGEST.
Fred C. Matthews Jr., caretaker of Sweet Olive, explained the cemetery was dilapidated and literally abandoned because all the people who looked after it before had basically died out. He also stated that when he and his wife volunteered to take on the cemetery as a project, it was completely consumed by high grass. According to Matthews, it was a “disgrace.”
When Matthews and his wife formed the Sweet Olive Cemetery Association in 1975 with donations from the community and the city, they were able to purchase a fence, remove the dead from deteriorated graves and repair some broken vaults.
About 65 years ago, vaults began to be used at the cemetery and prior to that they buried the deceased six feet under ground in wooden coffins that eventually deteriorated over a period of years,” said Matthews.
He explained how people who were burying at the time began to use vaults and repeatedly buried people on top of each other.
Since the majority of the buried do not have headstones, Matthews estimated 95 percent or more are unable to be identified.
Matthews said he wasn’t critical of the people who performed the burials because “they did what they could with what they had at the time.”
He mentioned that many people referred to Sweet Olive Cemetery as a black cemetery. When in reality, nearly two hundred years ago, whites and blacks were buried there. They used the method of dividing a certain amount of acres to the Catholic, Jewish and Protestant.
It wasn’t until the late 1800’s that Sweet Olive fell under the ownership of two black benevolent societies: The Society of Sons and Daughters of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church and The Society of the First African Baptist Church.
Any organizations interested in helping restore the cemetery can reach Matthews at (225) 383-0648 or 319 East Washington St. Baton Rouge, LA 70802