A couple of weeks ago I wrote about efforts to clean headstones in the Union Benevolent Society Cemetery on Vine Street — and I said I’d let y’all know when the next opportunity came up to join this volunteer endeavor.
It’s happening this week, at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The folks at the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County plan to organize a Tombstone Tuesday cleaning once a month through the summer.
If you go, you should think about wearing long pants and boots (or at least tuck your pants into your socks) because it’s tick season in Kentucky. But don’t be scared away by the great outdoors. The cemetery is a beautiful spot and it deserves some attention.
Here’s more about the historical significance of the UBS cemetery and the story of one woman buried at UBS who was one of the community’s earliest Black civil rights proponents.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
