Michigan’s first Black-owned cemetery celebrates 100 years, continues to serve community

WWJ

By Heath Kalb

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    DETROIT (WWJ) — Michigan’s first Black-owned cemetery and oldest African American corporation is celebrating 100 years of service to the community.

In 1925, a group of African American funeral directors convened to create a cemetery free of racial discrimination. Detroit Memorial Park in Warren is still recognized as a historical and cultural landmark in 2025.

“This is an inspiring story of a group of men coming together to solve a challenge of people not having access,” said Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II.

On Saturday night in Pontiac, Detroit Memorial Park’s centennial anniversary was celebrated.

“For many years, there was nowhere that Black people could go, and so up until I’d say the 60s, 70s, and 80s, we had so many burials each day because they felt they had to come to us, and now that’s opened up, they don’t have to come to us, but they still do, said Wilbur Hughes, Detroit Memorial Park CEO and grandson of one of the cemetery’s initial investors.

Celebrating alongside Detroit Memorial Park is the James H. Cole Home for Funerals of Detroit. The funeral home is the oldest Black-owned business in Michigan, celebrating 100 years in 2019.

“From one Black business to another, 100-year-old companies, I mean, you don’t see that very often, let alone in Southeast Michigan,” said Antonio Green, vice president of the James H. Cole Home for Funerals.

In the past few years leading up to the centennial celebration, Detroit Memorial Park has gone through beautification and infrastructure enhancements as well as digitizing records to improve accessibility for families and researchers so that the legacy of this cemetery will never be forgotten.

“If you do something for the right reasons, you can build something that lasts,” Gilchrist said.

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