A documentation of the public sources from which the Hallowed Grounds catalog has been compiled.
Wikidata
The principal source for the Hallowed Grounds catalog is the Wikidata SPARQL endpoint at query.wikidata.org. Wikidata is a free, collaboratively edited knowledge base that serves as the structured-data backbone of Wikipedia and a number of other Wikimedia projects. Hallowed Grounds queries Wikidata for entities classified as cemeteries (instances or subclasses of Q39614) located in the United States (P17 wd:Q30) whose names contain keywords associated with African American history. Each result includes the cemetery's name, location data (city, state, geographic coordinates), founding date where recorded, image where available, National Register of Historic Places reference number where applicable, and any associated Wikipedia article.
Wikipedia "List of African American Cemeteries"
The catalog is supplemented by entries derived from the Wikipedia article "List of African American cemeteries," which serves as the single most comprehensive open-access listing of historic Black burial grounds in the United States. The article is organized by state and provides, for each entry, the cemetery's name, locality, county where applicable, and notable historical attributes. The Hallowed Grounds catalog has parsed this article and merged its entries with the Wikidata results to produce a more complete picture than either source alone could supply.
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places, administered by the National Park Service, is the federal list of properties deemed worthy of preservation. The bulk-data export of the Register is available from the National Park Service at nps.gov. African American cemeteries listed on the Register appear in the Hallowed Grounds catalog with their NRHP reference numbers and are flagged as listed properties throughout the site. The presence of a National Register listing is one of the most important indicators of a cemetery's recognized historical significance.
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation publishes case studies and supporting materials documenting the historic Black sites it has supported through grant funding, including a substantial number of cemeteries. These materials, while not aggregated in a single bulk-data format, serve as an important reference for understanding which sites have been the subject of recent preservation effort and what the principal preservation challenges have been.
Editorial Process
The Hallowed Grounds catalog is built through a structured ingestion process in which the source data are queried, parsed, deduplicated, and merged into a single canonical record per cemetery. Each record is associated with the source from which the principal information was drawn. Subsequent editorial work develops the descriptive content for each entry on the basis of the available structured data and the broader scholarly and preservation literature on African American burial grounds. The Hallowed Grounds project does not claim original authority over the underlying historical record; the work is one of aggregation, presentation, and onward referral to the primary sources.
Limitations and Corrections
Any aggregation of data from multiple public sources will inevitably contain errors, gaps, and inconsistencies. The Hallowed Grounds catalog is a starting point for further research, not a substitute for direct engagement with the sources or with the descendant communities most directly knowledgeable about each site. Corrections, additions, and supplementary information are welcome and should be directed through the channels described on the About page. The catalog will be updated periodically as the underlying source data is improved and as new sources are integrated.