A cemetery in Luther, Oklahoma, is the only all-Black cemetery on all of Route 66, and it has graves dating back to the early 1800’s.
History of Tillman Watson Cemetery
The Tillman Watson Cemetery was established in 1889 during a time of racial segregation.
“African Americans could not be buried with the white burial plots in the other cemetery, and so this became that space,” said Dr. Edith Ritt-Coulter, a Lecturer of history at the University of Central Oklahoma.
“As you might know in history, this is the only Black cemetery on Highway 66 from California to Chicago,” said Tillman Watson Cemetery trustee, Dwight Guy. “I feel the spirit of my forefathers telling us to go on. There’s much more out here. Reach up and grab it. “
Cemetery left neglected
Over time, the cemetery was left neglected by the families and residents in Luther.
“Came out here one day and, looking for my mother’s headstone, couldn’t find it because of the weeds were so high,” said Reverend Marcellus Fields.
That was the moment Fields knew something had to be done. He began mowing the grass and trimming around the headstones.
“If I can’t see my mama, the other people can’t see their mother either,” said Fields. “So we just started cleaning up, me and my kids and grandkids.”
Fields said that as they did work, the more they realized how much still needed to be done to restore the cemetery.
“We started getting the tree and stuff out and some of the old bushes and stuff,” he said. “It was sometimes so tall that we ended up hitting some rocks that ended up being headstones with the lawnmower.”
Repairs underway ahead of Route 66 centennial
As excitement builds for the Route 66 Centennial celebration, so does the pressure to raise the standard of the cemetery.
They were to purchase a new sign, trees, and a fence for the cemetery.
Even with all these improvements, outside help was needed to completely restore the cemetery.
UCO professor helps find history of cemetery
Through a grant program at UCO, Professor Edith Ritt-Coulter was already researching the all-black cemetery.
“So we have generations and generations and generations of Black Oklahomans buried here,” said Ritt-Coulter.
Through looking at old obituaries and research, Ritt-Coulter was able to do a deep dive into who was buried in the cemetery.
“The oldest one that I found is Hiram Key, he’s actually born in 1810, and he died in 1910,” said Ritt-Coulter. “But, he doesn’t have a marker. We know he’s here because the Luther registrar says he’s buried here, but we have no idea where he is.”
Story after story, each telling the family history of the town.
“I know we’ve got people in World War I, II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and other wars also,” said Guy. “Now we’re researching, do we have someone in the Civil War.
On paper, there are 436 people buried in the cemetery, but Dr. Ritt-Coulter believes there are more.
“I think we can get close to 500,” she said. “I think there’s more here that is not on the records, I really do.”
Team preserves cemetery’s history
It is now a team effort with Dr. Ritt-Coulter and her team to find out who was buried at the cemetery, and the cemetery caretakers identify unmarked graves.
The team is working together to preserve the cemetery, but also the history.
“And that’s one thing we want to do now, is pass that information along, even my own family history. I know they knew it, but we did not write it down, and they leave you sitting there wondering ‘Why did I not know that?’” said Fields.
“It just creates that multigenerational string that sometimes is disconnected. When kids and family members are curious, it creates a resource so they can say, ‘Okay, I know who grandma is,’” said Ritt-Coulter.
Through a land survey, it was discovered that the cemetery owned an additional acre of land surrounding the property, and an expansion project is already in the works.
