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SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is a descendant-led volunteer-based 501c3! Restoring Lincoln Cemetery! SOAL is a 100% Volunteer-Based organization.
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Our efforts to restore Lincoln Cemetery are paid for by our volunteers and your contributions.

10/24/2026

The old trees are helping us grow the next generation. This week, an arborist from Bartlett Tree Experts - York, PA generously contributed time and expertise to SOAL, consulting on tree placement, joining us in planting, and helping us plan for the care the new canopy will need. Some of today’s plantings were nestled inside fallen trees that hold the ancestors. There is profound satisfaction in tending new life within these old trees. Honoring what they carry while making room for what comes next.

Some of the thinking behind the planting included questions about spacing, the variety of trees we’ve planted, and how different species will grow together. Those decisions connect historic records, the local ecology, the specific trees donated to us, and knowledge shared on the ground. We’re thinking about future shade, the protection of graves and headstones, and the work of tending these trees as they mature. Recreating a canopy means imagining this place decades from now, and taking responsibility for the care that will get it there.

For everyone confronting the neglect and abandonment of historic Black burial grounds, we know how much knowledge, labor, and love this work requires. These sacred places are among the most significant archives we have. Our heartfelt thanks to Bartlett for bringing professional expertise into this community-led work, to PA IPL’s Roots, Branches, & Hands program for providing the native trees helping us carry it forward, to Dauphin County, PA for funding the removal of the dangerous old trees, and to our community volunteers. Every person who shares their skills, resources, or time helps extend that circle of care.

10/18/2026

Yesterday at Historic Lincoln Cemetery, descendants, neighbors, and volunteers came together to help restore the historic tree canopy, planting trees for future generations. As Rachael explains in the video (in comments), trees hold a special place in Black burial traditions, sustaining connections among the ancestors, across time, land, and living communities. How we honor our dead, how we remember our families and communities, and how we care for sacred grounds is woven into the landscapes. Restoring a tree canopy can carry that knowledge forward and gives history room to grow.

We know so many of you are confronting the neglect, abandonment & destruction of Black burial grounds. Historic cemeteries are among the most significant archives of Black lives and communities in the United States. Protecting them is key to our survival.

For yesterday’s plantings, SOAL looked at diverse historic records, the local ecology, and the specific trees donated to us. Those considerations shaped both species selection and placement, with care for the graves and cemetery features of this historic landscape.
Here in south central Pennsylvania, our plantings included sycamore, red maple, tulip poplar, Allegheny serviceberry, blackgum, and black birch, among others. As they grow, they can provide shade, reduce grass growth, support wildlife, and help absorb rainfall.

Exploring replanting at a burial ground you care for? Your local cooperative extension is an excellent starting point, though there are special considerations to make at historic cemeteries… Look for historical aerial photographs of your region. They may go back way further than you expect! The old images can offer clues about earlier tree cover and the landscape you’re working to protect.

Heartfelt thanks to PA IPL’s Roots, Branches, & Hands program for providing the trees helping us rebuild Lincoln Cemetery’s historic canopy!
Thank you to Kirsten at Rising Sun Acres for coordinating the trees and planting!

We deeply appreciate Rep. Justin Fleming for his support over the years; and Susquehanna Township - Dauphin County, PA Commissioner Pamela Cross for joining and getting dirty with volunteers. It means so much to have you spend time to get to know folks and understand what we are trying to achieve together.

Thanks to Messiah University Center for Public Humanities and Messiah University History Program for the ongoing collaboration; volunteers from the Historical Society of Dauphin County; Robin & Epiphany Lutheran Church; Harrisburg Gardens- Landscape Supply & Garden Center; and our SOAL community of descendants and friends who make volunteering special.

If you missed yesterday, you can still join today and help plant the remaining trees! Sunday Oct 18th, 12pm til dusk at Harrisburg’s Historic Lincoln Cemetery.

Plant the Next Century: Community Tree Planting at Historic Lincoln Cemetery

10/18/2026

Black history has a living landscape.

Yesterday at Lincoln Cemetery, descendants, neighbors, and volunteers came together to help restore its historic tree canopy—and plant for generations we may never meet.

As Rachael explains in this video, trees hold an important place in Black burial traditions. How we honor our dead, remember our families, and care for sacred ground connects to the landscape. The landscape itself carries history.

We know so many of you are confronting the neglect and abandonment of historic Black burial grounds. These places are among the most significant archives our communities have assembled of our own existence in the United States. Protecting them takes sustained work, knowledge, resources, and planning for the long term.

For this planting, we considered historic records, the local ecology, and the trees generously donated to us. Those considerations shaped both species selection and placement, with care for the graves, the historic landscape, and future maintenance.

Here in south central Pennsylvania, our plantings included sycamore, red maple, tulip poplar, Allegheny serviceberry, American witch hazel, blackgum, and black birch. As they grow, they can provide shade, support wildlife, and help absorb rainfall.

Exploring replanting at a burial ground you care for? Your local cooperative extension is an excellent starting point. And look for historical aerial photographs of your region. They may go back way further than you expect! They can offer clues about earlier tree cover and the landscape you’re working to protect.

Heartfelt thanks to PA IPL’s Roots, Branches, & Hands program for providing the trees helping us rebuild Lincoln Cemetery’s historic canopy!

Thank you to Kirsten at Sun Acres for coordinating the trees and planting.

We deeply appreciate Rep. Justin Fleming for his support over the years; and Susquehanna Township - Dauphin County, PA Commissioner Pamela Cross for joining and getting dirty with volunteers. It means so much to have you spend time to get to know folks and understand what we are trying to achieve together.

Thanks to Messiah University Center for Public Humanities, Messiah University History Program, and Messiah University film program for the ongoing collaborations; volunteers from the Historical Society of Dauphin County; Robin & Epiphany Lutheran Church for the meal; Harrisburg Gardens- Landscape Supply & Garden Center for the mulch; and thank you to our SOAL community of descendants and friends who make volunteering special.

If you missed yesterday, you can still join today and help plant the remaining trees! Sunday Oct 18th, 12pm til dusk at Harrisburg’s Historic Lincoln Cemetery.

Plant the Next Century: Community Tree Planting at Historic Lincoln Cemetery

10/17/2026

When you find out you are national hero of the week googling yourself over dinner 😂

Meanwhile, she drives 5+ hours each way to care for Lincoln Cemetery, sleep with the ancestors, and keep showing up to reclaim Black history.

Join us Saturday, October 17 at 12pm for community dialogue and tree planting as we begin restoring the cemetery’s tree canopy. Together, we’ll plant for future shade and protection, a renewed landscape, and generations who will come here to find their history.

Longtime partners, new friends, descendants, neighbors, and notables plan to join. Event info: Plant the Next Century: Community Tree Planting at Historic Lincoln Cemetery
Saturday Oct 17, noon til dusk
Historic Lincoln Cemetery
201 S. 30th Street
Harrisburg, PA

Thill, Local 21 CBS News, WHP Harrisburg and — Thank you for helping amplify the story and honoring the “The Good in America!” Gratitude to everyone who has ever driven, flown, donated, or showed up for saving Black history.

10/17/2026

Tomorrow, we get to plant something beautiful together! Join us for dialogue and to Plant the Next Century: Community Tree Planting at Historic Lincoln Cemetery.

Saturday October 17th, 12pm til dusk
Historic Lincoln Cemetery
201 S. 30th St., Harrisburg, PA

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10/15/2026

It’s 3rd in the Burg weekend! Did you see that SOAL is featured in this month’s The Burg magazine?

After reading up, join SOAL at October Restoration this Friday-Sunday, noon til dusk.
Community tree planting on Saturday! RSVP at:
Plant the Next Century: Community Tree Planting at Historic Lincoln Cemetery

“Dignity Restored: Group honored for helping to save historic Black cemetery” by Dan Miller
https://theburgnews.com/around-the-burg/dignity-restored-group-honored-for-helping-to-save-historic-black-cemetery

10/15/2026

Plant new roots. Honor the ancestors. Help care for what comes next. SOAL October Restoration Weekend at Lincoln Cemetery is just days away. Our out-of-state volunteers have begun their journeys to Harrisburg! This Friday, Saturday Sunday, 12pm til dusk, join us for tree planting!

Plant the Next Century: Community Tree Planting at Historic Lincoln Cemetery

On Saturday, October 17, SOAL will host a special community day as we begin restoring Lincoln Cemetery’s tree canopy. Together, we’ll plant for future shade, a renewed landscape, and generations who will come here to find their families and learn their history.

Rep. Justin Fleming will join on Saturday, as well as Susquehanna Township - Dauphin County, PA Commissioner Pamela Cross, and others!

Our heartfelt thanks to tree donors from the Roots, Branches, & Hands program at PA IPL. Additional materials donated by Harrisburg Gardens- Landscape Supply & Garden Center. Support provided by Dauphin County, PA, and volunteers helping to make this replanting possible. Messiah University Center for Public Humanities. Epiphany Lutheran Church. Historical Society of Dauphin County. Harrisburg Chapter, NSDAR. Monument Preservation & Restoration. The National Civil War Museum. Civil War and More. Young Professionals of Color - Greater Harrisburg. Black NewsBeat with Dr. Kimeka Campbell. Please help spread the word. Bring a friend.

Lincoln Cemetery holds the lives, relationships, and stories of Harrisburg Black history. Caring for this sacred archive is a commitment to the people buried here, and to the descendant community still finding their way home.

To everyone traveling from around the block or across the country, thank you for making this work part of your lives. Bring a friend, reconnect with fellow volunteers, and help carry this work forward.

📍 Historic Lincoln Cemetery • 201 S. 30th St., Harrisburg, PA. Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Join us from noon til dusk

10/08/2026

What will you keep alive?

Don’t lose faith. Activate your activism.

Print a historical photograph. Learn the person’s name. Share a letter in an ancestor’s own handwriting. Find out whose name your street carries, and what the signs leave unsaid. Bring that history into a classroom, a community gathering, an everyday conversation.

Make our history part of the fabric of everything.

At SOAL, that work takes root at Lincoln Cemetery. Recovering names, tracing relationships, caring for burial places, and helping descendants reconnect with their ancestors. Join us next week for SOAL October Restoration, Oct 16-18, noon til dusk. On Saturday Oct. 17th: Plant the Next Century: Community Tree Planting at Historic Lincoln Cemetery

Through Action4Heritage, we’re building a community to preserve endangered archives and bring those histories into public view. Open meetings Saturdays at 3pm.

Join a project—or start one.

https://linktr.ee/savingourancestorslegacy

www.Action4Heritage.org

10/04/2026

After a day of workshops and dialogue, Rachael slept outside beneath the International African American Museum in Charleston with The Slave Dwelling Project. Folks gathered at Gadsden’s Wharf, one of the most significant sites of the transatlantic slave trade in North America, where tens of thousands of captive Africans were brought ashore.

The museum rises above this ground, leaving space beneath it for the land and its history to remain visible, accessible, and honored. Participants slept where that history happened.

The overnight carries forward a practice Joseph McGill Jr. began in 2010: sleeping in surviving slave dwellings to draw attention to places neglected, erased, or interpreted without centering the people who actually lived there. Staying becomes an act of attention and remembrance, a commitment to confronting slavery’s history and its continuing impact.

At Gadsden’s Wharf, that attention reaches toward people whose lives began far across the water. People with names, languages, knowledge, and relationships. People whose full humanity asks more of us than a count of those brought ashore.

A night beside the water becomes a responsibility carried home.

To remain present. To protect Black archives and memory. To carry history forward with care.

Sources: International African American Museum; The Slave Dwelling Project.

10/04/2026

Our ancestors’ lives exceeded the borders drawn around them. In “From Hold to Seashell: Ancestral Roots to Revolutionary Routes,” Rachael Keri Williams invited participants at The Slave Dwelling Project conference to rethink Black geographies and the limitations of colonial maps, tracing the ties of kinship, knowledge, and resistance that connect our ancestors’ life worlds to each other and to our own.

What becomes possible when we map the relationships the ancestors sustained and the worlds they made, beyond the boundaries imposed on their lives?

Address

201 S 30th Street
Harrisburg, PA
17103

Website

https://lincolncemetery.org/, https://www.paypal.com/US/fundraiser/charity/4753303

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