Camden County
In celebration of its 100th year, descendants of students who attended Kinlaw Rosenwald School are restoring this 3-teacher type school. Once the restoration is complete, this school will serve the Kinlaw community for years to come.
When I visited with my friend, Brian, we were lucky enough to meet one of the men helping go restore the building, Marshall Glover. You can read more about the school and donate money by visiting the school’s site.
Located in Camden County, Georgia, Rising Daughter Baptist Church, the cemetery is filled with a mixture of vernacular and commercial headstones. I am uncertain of the age of the church and cemetery, but based on headstones I would the age the congregation to be from the 1910s.
This is one of the Madonna markers, my friend Brian and I located in three different cemeteries. A full post about these markers are located here.
These markers show a repeated motif of the loops. If these marks are called something else, please let me know.
Harold and Thelma Swain were murdered inside the church. Their case remains unsolved after DNA evidence exonerated the man who initially went to jail. There is a new suspect in the case. For more information, their story can be read here.
My friend, Brian Brown, and I planned a photo trip while I was down at St. Simons for the week. As I was looking through Find-a-Grave, I noticed these vernacular figures repeated in a couple cemeteries. We decided to take a look. After seeing a couple, we realized they were likely a Mary/Madonna figure. The elements have worn off many of the details.
Since these were all in cemeteries of Black churches, it is possible that a local funeral home did them, or that it was a local artist. This is the first time I’ve personally seen a connection in monuments like these in several cemeteries. Even though likely cast, I do consider these vernacular in nature.
Located in a remote part of Camden County, Georgia, the Oak Grove Baptist Church was consecrated in 1891. Early families were the Drurys, Beasleys, and Linkers.
