Established not long after the Civil War, Oak Cemetery became the final resting place for many of the residents of Fayetteville’s Black community and is one of the earliest public cemeteries in the city.
The cemetery covers ??? acres of land bounded by Dunn and University Avenues on the east and west, by the U.S. National Cemetery on the north and by private property on the south.
Oak Cemetery was added to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places on Dec. 3, 2014. According to the nomination form, Stephen K. and Amanda Stone sold a plot of land on the southern edge of the city to the African-American community of Fayetteville on July 4, 1867, for $10.
The sale conveyed the property to Mary Lowe, Lafayette Gregg, E.D. Ham, Malloy, and William Storey to hold in trust “for the Colored peoples of Washington County” and that the land would be used “for the purposes of a Church or a school house for the Colored people, or for any other purposes that will add to the … improvement of the Colored people of said county.”
By 1924, the cemetery’s deed was transferred from Emma Jones to trustees for the “Colored Cemetery.”
The nomination form listed the earliest known birth of those buried in Oak Cemetery as that of Margrett West, 1819-1913. Others were born in the 1840s, include:
- Fanny Denton, 1844-1917;
- Henry Moore, 1845-1922;
- Lucille Smith, 1845-1912;
- William Taylor, 1845-1912; and
- Ann York, 1845-1928.
The cemetery has also been labeled on maps at various times as Oaks Cemetery, Twin Oaks Cemetery, the African Cemetery and the Colored Cemetery.