The filtered sun rays that fall through tall old trees at Geer Cemetery shed more light on what lies beneath the soft dirt than do most of the headstones in this historic burial ground.

More can be gathered about these few acres -- sold in 1877 to three African-American men by the plantation-owning Geer family -- from the many grave markers that have toppled over than by the few that remain readable.

Its secrets tease visitors -- sinkholes shaped suspiciously like coffins whisper of the days when caskets were wooden and the poor, black dead were buried atop one another. Some headstones are nothing more than small slabs with initials -- children, perhaps?

The grounds are covered in dying weeds (thanks to a recent chemical spray) and shade, which casts cooling shadows on the plot tucked into the eastern edge of Duke Park.

Durham's oldest black cemetery was neglected for decades after its closure due to overcrowding in the 1940s. The lineage of those three men had long since faded, and land used by blacks was easily forgotten about during those pre-Civil Rights days. Save a city/community cleanup in the 1990s, it remained untouched.

In 2003, however, a group of people known as the Friends of Geer Cemetery formed to resurrect this historic relic and bring some accountability to the land. The Friends called upon the city to take responsibility. The land had been used, after all, as a public burial ground for decades.

The city agreed to its upkeep in 2003, but has never claimed the land as its own.

The problems in claiming ownership of this land form a complex and convoluted knot of liability and accountability - making sure the land does not legally belong to someone already, city statutes regarding cemetery maintenance, the county's responsibility for abandoned properties, historic preservation and the grand question of who would ultimately foot the bill have kept the graveyard in the gray.

The Friends group, roughly 30 members strong, pushed city officials again in late 2006 to improve maintenance of the grounds. Kevin Lilley, facilities operations manager, said his group was happy to take over after a contract with a private crew expired. Since then, the city has responded by sending a team twice each season to spray down the aggressive wisteria (its initial removal cost $14,000 in 2003), clean litter and remove rotted trees and dead plants.

But the journey is not over. The Friends' main initiative is to bring forward someone to claim ownership; in the group's opinion it belongs to the city, but for now the land remains in limbo -- not a good place for a burial site.

Those who care

Though more than 3,000 of Durham's blacks are thought to be buried on the scant two acres, not many people know the cemetery exists. For a few, however, it holds special meaning.

Some sense the historical significance of a place designated for black citizens only. Between the 1870s and the 1940s (the exact dates have been debated), Durham's blacks, many of them prominent in city history, were buried here, back when there was segregation even in death -- Maplewood Cemetery, Durham's public burial ground, was for whites only.

The parcel has gone by many names -- City Cemetery, Mason Cemetery and Colored Cemetery, to name a few. The only known deed shows that Jesse B. Geer sold the land to Willie Moore, John Daniel and Nelson Mitchell in 1877.

Legend has it that this land was sold after a young farmhand was killed by a horse or mule while working Geer's land. Geer sold the land on which the boy was buried for $50 "to be used as a cemetery for the colored people."

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