Join the SOAL Community: Become part of our team of volunteers onsite or online!

The first SOAL Restoration in July 2021 at Harrisburg Lincoln Cemetery. No matter what else you do--you can show up to reclaim Black History. It makes you feel good.
In July 2021 SOAL started reclaiming our ancestors.

We Need Your Help at Lincoln Cemetery Volunteer Restoration Weekends!

Come join our 100% Volunteer-Driven operated restoration of Harrisburg’s Oldest Black Cemetery!
We will be recovering sunken gravestones, removing litter, trimming trees, planting flowers, cleaning headstones, resetting gravestones, and a lot more!
You can help onsite with restoration work… Or you can provide a meal, work the grill, contribute lawn care equipment, share a bit of local/family history…
Everyone is needed!

Lincoln Cemetery Restoration Weekends are held:
* the 3rd Friday of every month
* Spring to Fall
* Friday to Sunday
* Noon to Dusk.

And..Everyone is welcome to join us in saving our ancestors’ legacy!

Register For 2024 SOAL Historic Preservation Events

SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 Nonprofit

EIN# 87-4185990

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Black Cemetery Restoration at Lincoln Cemetery

SOAL has been “Uncovering Gravestones Uncovering History“! Learn more about what SavingOurAncestorsLegacy Volunteers achieved in their first year restoring Harrisburg’s oldest African American Burial Ground: Lincoln Cemetery!

SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 nonprofit that has been restoring Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg, since 2021. Lincoln Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Grounds.
This is a grassroots VOLUNTEER Descendant-Community Led Effort. We appreciate your support immensely.
"We are a people. A people do not throw their geniuses away"...SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 nonprofit that has been restoring Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg, since 2021. Lincoln Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Grounds.
Learn how we get started

Uncovering Black History at Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg

Lincoln Cemetery is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Ground. This is a photo of the wrought-iron front gate at the historic graveyard located at 201 South 30th street in Penbrook, PA. The top of the gate reads "Lincoln Cemetery 1827."
Lincoln Cemetery Front Gate May 2022

Jim Crow’s Graveyard in South-central Pennsylvania

It is time to tell the true history of Harrisburg’s Oldest Black Cemetery. Lincoln Cemetery was not founded in 1816, 1817, or 1927, as written iron on the cemetery’s front gates…The grounds of Lincoln Cemetery were consecrated, outside of the city limits, in November of 1877 on a plot of land that lies on the border of what is now the Town of Penbrook and Susquehanna Township in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania.

Read Our Ancestor Stories
Historic newspaper notice regarding the removal of bodies from the Wesleyan Union Zion Graveyard (Colored) on Herr street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The African American cemeteries located in the city of Harrisburg were disinterred and reinterred in Lincoln Cemetery in Penbrook. SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 nonprofit that has been restoring Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg, since 2021. Lincoln Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Grounds.
Notice to Persons Having Relatives and Friends Buried in the Methodist Cemetery and Wesleyan Union Zion Grave Yard.
SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy 2023 Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg Volunteer Restoration Weekends Event Registration and calendar. SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a 501c3 nonprofit that has been restoring Lincoln Cemetery Harrisburg, since 2021. Lincoln Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's oldest remaining African American Burial Grounds.

SavingOurAncestorsLegacy Facebook Events Page

Buy SOAL

Shop for SOAL swag. Support our historic cemetery restoration work, support <a href=
From Left to Right: Tafari Wilson, Rachael Williams, and Bhakti Williams-Brown model their SOAL Swag at the 2022 Lincoln Cemetery Restoration Weekend
Wear Your Support for Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy On Your Sleeve

100% of the $$$ we generate through your purchase goes Directly into the restoration of Lincoln Cemetery!

Purchase SOALswag & come to our next Lincoln Cemetery Restoration Event in style

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Find Your People–Support Your Tribe
SOAL has been doing genealogical research on Harrisburg's Black families since 2021. We are saving our ancestors' legacies.
Help SOAL Keep the Lincoln Cemetery Tree Online
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We are a people. A people do not throw their geniuses away. And if they are thrown away, it is our duty as artists and as witnesses for the future to collect them again for the sake of our children, and, if necessary, bone by bone.

Alice Walker
[SOAL, Harrisburg, PA] Exploring documentation on Civil War Contraband Camps. This is how SOAL’s Rachael Keri Williams puts together ancestor stories! It's how she got interested in researching history. Getting to make people real again We’re getting somewhere! Both Maureen & Dean came down to the Volunteer SOAL Restoration event on Saturday, to help me with this headstone puzzle. I’ve been slowly piecing this back together since I spied one corner of marble peeking out from under a granite headstone a couple weeks ago! There are still some marble pieces left in the pit—we’ll have to wait see what turns up! 🙏🏽🥰♥️💪🏽 Please donate to support our work (we’re not paid)! The recovered headstone of Charles Edward Lucas (1821-1889). Spring Night. This is what #radicalhistoryreclamation pays now---What it pays back is PRICELESS! When we started, in July 2021, we didn't know anything about cemetery restoration, but we did tons and tons of research before we even started cleaning headstones! After reading so many horror stories of people using the wrong products & permanently destroying historic headstones— we immediately understood the importance of bringing others on the historic preservation journey! Our goal was to be true to our grassroots & grow our community at the @witforg #genealogy #fair —we brought my cemetery wagon, tools, and more! Met a lot of great people, got some cash$ contributions to our #donation jar 🥰 (Thank You! ♥️♥️♥️) & shared some stories, resources, cemetery restoration & family history research tips with the greater #harrisburg community! We picked up our new banner and brochures for the genealogy fair! Now we’ve just got to get our wagon and cemetery restoration in the car & go get set up for SOAL’s first conference! We'll be at the @witforg #findingyourroots Genealogy Fair at the @whitakercenter April 6, 2024 reppin' the place where y'all roots at... the cemetery!

Tell Us What You Think About The Lincoln Cemetery Restoration

Help us raise money and build support for our restoration of Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery–Share how SOAL’s work has made your world richer!

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Lincoln Cemetery Collage of Ancestors and Grave Markers