African Burying Grounds Preservation Committee

When the African Burying Ground site used in the 1700s and then forgotten was accidentally uncovered in 2003, the Portsmouth City Council appointed the African Burying Ground Committee and asked the group to determine how best to honor those buried on Chestnut Street. 

The Committee – comprised of representatives from the Seacoast African American Cultural Center, Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, Inc. and the Portsmouth community – with the help and support of the community, the City Council, archaeological professionals and a nationally-known design team, completed the design for the African Burying Ground Memorial Park, We Stand in Honor of Those Forgotten. The new African Burying Ground Memorial Park was completed in 2015.

Since then the African Burying Ground Memorial Committee has stewarded the memorial park and advocated for the preservation of other historic African and African-American burial sites.

In 2025, the Committee, chaired by Assistant Mayor Joanna Kelly oversaw $31,000 in maintenance work on the Memorial including:

• The figurative sculptures at the top of State Street were cleaned and recoated with a protectant.
• The 36 granite inscription panels (the ribbon) were cleaned of soils and accretions and the letters repainted.
• The silhouette sculptures were cleaned and lightly polished and coated.
• The stone surfaces on the front face of the terrace were cleaned and repainted
• Working with a tile installer and Jerome Meadows, the original artist, to repair the Sankofa cover on top of the burial vault

The Committee has also discussed other burial sites including the Langdon Farm and the Prince Whipple Family and other burials in North Cemetery.