Hampton data center construction: Historic Black cemetery concerns raised

HAMPTON, Ga. - A massive new data center development in Hampton is raising serious concerns among community members who fear the construction will damage an adjacent historic Black cemetery. 

Hampton data center construction

What we know:

Crews are currently constructing a massive data center near the intersection of South Lee Road and lower Woosley Road. 

The site sits directly adjacent to the remains of a historic Black church and its neighboring cemetery. Honor Thy Roots Cemetery Preservation Inc. advocates Shawndrea Gay and Efaye Lloyd are leading a movement to protect the sacred grounds, noting the site contains 54 documented names along with 16 undocumented enslaved people and visible headstones. 

‘It hurts'

What they're saying:

"It hurts. It hurts. We’re out here advocating and trying to save these cemeteries and they’re constantly ignoring us. Nobody is hearing us," Gay said. Lloyd added, "We are in the process of starting a preservation movement. We want to preserve abandoned and forgotten African American cemeteries like the one behind us". 

Property lines run close, but the city established a 50-foot buffer between the data center and the burial grounds to ensure it is not destroyed. 

City officials are partnering with outside organizations to clean up and restore the long-abandoned grounds. "Our goal is to get it on the National Registry but definitely the state historical registry here in Georgia. We’re hoping that we will get that process done. That will dictate what and how we go in and start the registration process," Tarpley said. 

Historical cemetery buffer protections

What we don't know:

It remains unclear when official restoration work will physically begin at the site, or how long the registration process will take. Hampton Mayor Ann Tarpley clarified that the cemetery is its own separate entity located about a football field away from the project.