About a month ago, I visited the grave of the great blues singer Ma Rainey. Rainey is buried in Porterdale Cemetery in her hometown of Columbus, Georgia. After finding her grave, I was wandering through the graveyard and came across this stone. I returned today and took this picture.
For most of the history of the South, racial segregation did not end with death. Porterdale Cemetery was designed to be the final resting place for the black residents of Columbus. And seeing this tombstone brought the terrible history of my region home to me. At first I thought it was strange that there were no last names on this stone. Then I realized that Kizzie and Jenny didn't have last names - they were slaves.
The stone itself raises some questions. It's marble, and professionally carved. Most of the older markers in Porterdale are concrete. There's not much chance that, in Georgia in 1858, Kizzie could have paid for her daughter's tombstone - so who did? Was Kizzie the maid of a privileged family? Could Jenny's father have been the slavemaster?
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