Founded February 1886, the cemetery was an effort of nine African-American businessmen including Jacob McKinley, George W. Graham, Robert Grant, Charles H. Morgan, John Render and Albert Watts, all who wanted a safe, secure place where their family members could be buried with dignity in the midst of backlash to Reconstruction.[4]. The State of Georgia approved its charter in April 1886.[3]
Albert H. Watts, grandson of co-founder Albert Watts, served as Southview Cemetery's President-Treasurer from 1977 until his death in 2001. Current President, Winifred Hemphill, several stockholders, Board members and members of the staff are descendants of the founders.[3]
The cemetery has both perpetual care and non-perpetual care areas. All new lots are sold with perpetual care, but many historic family plots were not.[5] As a result, some portions of the cemetery have "suffered from neglect".[6] A non-profit foundation was created in 2004 to raise money, conduct preservation projects and provide care for historic parts of the cemetery.[5]
A cell phone tour of the cemetery was created in a collaborative effort with Oakland Cemetery to provide biographical details about African Americans interred at the two cemeteries. Visitors can obtain a site map at the visitors center, and each of the 14 stops on the tour is marked with a granite marker. The visitor can call a phone number and dial each stop number as they arrive at it, to hear information.[5]
The cemetery celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2011, and at that time Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed gave it the city's Phoenix Award for its contributions to the city.[5] For many years South-View was paid by the city of Atlanta to provide spaces for African-Americans buried at city expense.[7]
Two printed guidebooks to the cemetery have been published.[8][9]
Veterans who served in every war since World War I are buried in the cemetery, including two members of the Tuskegee Airmen. An annual ceremony as part of Wreaths Across America has been held in December starting in 2010.[11]
Notable people buried here include:
Hank Aaron (1934–2021), former Major League Baseball Hall of Fame player known for breaking Hall of Famer Babe Ruth's 714 home run record, finishing with 755 career home runs.[12]
Moses Amos,[7] Georgia's first licensed African-American pharmacist, grandfather of artist Emma Amos
William Barrett, Yusuf Bell, Milton Harvey, Aaron Jackson, Patrick Rogers, Curtis Walker, and Aaron Wyche,[15][16] who were among the victims of the Atlanta murders of 1979–1981
Walt Bellamy (1939–2013), a former Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame professional basketball center in the National Basketball Association who won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympic Games who played fourteen seasons with the Chicago Packers/Zephyrs, Baltimore Bullets, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks and New Orleans Jazz. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993, Bellamy was a charter member of the Indiana University Athletic Hall of Fame, inducted in 1982.[1][17]
Horace A. Bohannon,[11] a Tuskegee Airman who co-founded the Atlanta Chapter Tuskegee Airmen in 1976
Horace Mann Bond,[20] (1904–1972). Noted historian, educator and father of noted Civil Rights leader Julian Bond, He was an influential leader at several historically black colleges and was appointed the first president of Fort Valley State University in Georgia in 1939, where he managed its growth in programs and revenue. In 1945 he became the first African-American president of Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.[1] [2] and president of President of Atlanta University.
^"King Body Taken to New Site". The Atlanta Constitution. January 14, 1970. p. 7. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020 – via newspapers.com. Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr. and her four children were present during the predawn hours Tuesday as King's body in its crypt was transferred from South View Cemetery to a site near the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
^Perry, Harmon (March 23, 1978). "Deceased West Point Grad Honored In Ga. Hometown". Jet. Vol. 54, no. 1. p. 22. Retrieved September 3, 2018. After 38 years of embedment in an unmarked grave on a family plot alongside distant relatives, the remains of the nation's first Black graduate of the U.S. Army Academy (West Point) were unearthed from the Southview Cemetery in Atlanta and driven 240 miles for....the reburial ceremonies in Thomasville, Feb. 11, 1978
^Hagans, Gail; Manuel, Marlon (May 22, 1995). "At two resilient schools, it's time to celebrate". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. B4. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020 – via newspapers.com. ...the remains of Morehouse luminary Benjamin E. Mays and his wife, Sadie, were moved from Southview Cemetery late Saturday and placed in a marble memorial on the school campus Sunday.