page_title: Flat Rock, Georgia
section_title: The Historic Flat Rock Cemetery
hierarchical_section_title: Flat Rock, Georgia / Flat Rock Archives / Significant sites / The Historic Flat Rock Cemetery
caption_attribution_description: English: Unidentified foot stone of grave located within the Flat Rock Historic Cemetery. Material is local granite rock.
context_page_description: Flat Rock is a historic African American community in DeKalb County, Georgia. It is located within the city of Lithonia, as well as the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area. Flat Rock is believed to be one of the oldest African American settlements in DeKalb County. In 1820, the area rested along the border of Creek and Cherokee Nation hunting grounds when it was settled during the Georgia Land Lottery. In 1865, after the end of the Civil War, the era of reconstruction provided opportunity for former slaves to stay in the area to build schools, churches, and civic organizations and create the tight knit African American Flat Rock Community. The community has continued to live in the area and have experienced the Black Codes, Jim Crow and the Great Migration. The area currently houses the Flat Rock Archives, which specialize in preserving African American rural history in Georgia.
context_section_description: The Historic Flat Rock Cemetery is an important part of the Flat Rock community, with numerous people from throughout the community's history buried at the historic cemetery site. A list of interred can be found on the Flat Rock Archives website. This list only includes those that have been definitively placed in the cemetery. There are many more that do not have historical records.
  In 2008, Dr. Jeffrey Glover of Georgia State University organized a cemetery mapping project with his Fall Archaeological Methods course students. Glover's class worked with the local Flat Rock community and the Greater Atlanta Historical Society (GAAS) to clear the overgrowth from the cemetery. After the clearing, students documented the graves using standardized forms, digital cameras, and some stone rubbings. The graves were then mapped using a total station to create accurate GPS points within the cemetery. The project documented 202 graves total and of those 107 were unidentified fieldstones.
caption: Unidentified Fieldstone grave. Photo is a Footstone of an unidentified grave located within the Historical Flat Rock Cemetery. Material is Lithonia, Georgia, granite.
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