Muslim Day of Service Restores Forgotten Black Graves 

Ten thousand American Muslims will gather in Richmond, Virginia, on July 3, headed to an annual convention. But they’ll also be engaged in service by tending to a neglected cemetery where African American graves have been forgotten and overgrown.

Indeed, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will spend the morning before their 75th annual convention cleaning headstones and clearing brush from graves that have received little care or funding, in stark contrast to the well-maintained section where white Americans were historically buried.

“It’s a cemetery that’s been pretty much run over, hasn’t been cared for, doesn’t really get funding,” Zafar Harris, national spokesman for the community, tells Word In Black. The service effort is a continuation of the restoration work they began last year, which uncovered nearly 100 burial sites.

Harris says last year they saw first-hand that the clean side is where “the white Americans were buried, so that’s why it was maintained.” However, the predominantly African American side was “not kept at all. And so we spent time, we toiled and sweated a lot in the heat,” to restore it.

Read More: https://wordinblack.com/2025/06/muslim-day-of-service-restores-forgotten-black-graves/