W. African roots seen at Basket Creek Cemetery

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W. African roots seen at Basket Creek Cemetery

Photos: Mounds of red clay mark burial sites at Basket Creek Cemetery in Douglas County in Georgia. The swept yard and grave mounds are a West Aftrican tradition.

Mounds of red clay mark the burial spots at Basket Creek Baptist Church in Douglas County. The church's 123-year-old graveyard is like no other known cemetery in Georgia.

Vassye Jackson, a lifelong member of the church, stands behind Mose Ensley, who kneels to get a closer look at a grave marker belonging to Jane Endsley, who died July 12, 1880.

The cemetery has a swept yard with no grass or other vegetation. Basket Creek church members rebuild the burial mounds regularly -- a practice with roots in West Africa.

Vassye Jackson spearheaded the effort to have the cemetery placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Curtis Endsley, Mose Ensley, Pastor Rick Seaborn and Jesse Endsley, stand in the cemetery after a recent Sunday service.

Since the first burial in 1886, church members have gathered at least twice a year to sweep the grounds of vegetation and rebuild the mounded ridges, which are not rounded like many Indian mounds, but are long and come to a pointed top.

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Mounds of red clay mark the burial spots at Basket Creek Baptist Church in Douglas County. The church's 123-year-old graveyard is like no other known cemetery in Georgia.

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