Report doubts slaves are buried at school

RALEIGH -- A new report is disputing the claim that a cemetery found on the site of a planned high school in northeastern Wake County contains the graves of slaves.

Neighbors of the planned school off Forestville Road near U.S. 401 say it shouldn’t be built because it would desecrate what they think is a slave cemetery.

But Wake school administrators said Tuesday that a new report shows that the graves are a "probable Euro American cemetery."

Administrators say they plan to build the school around the cemetery, fencing in the area and preserving the 40 to 50 graves on the site. The cemetery is located on the southwest corner of the student parking lot.

Funding permitting, the campus would open in 2011.

Neighbors, who had initially fought the construction of the high school because of traffic concerns, contacted Darin Waters, a historian and board member of the Raleigh-based Institute for Historical Research and Education. In a letter sent to county commissioners, Waters said this "is clearly a slave cemetery" that may have been part of the nearby plantation owned by Peterson Dunn at the time of the Civil War.

Neighbors have urged building a memorial and park on the site instead of a high school.

But school administrators contacted the Chicora Foundation, a South Carolina-based historical preservation group, to review the cemetery. The Chicora Foundation report indicated that it didn’t appear to be a slave cemetery based on the layout of the graves.

School officials say they plan to post the report online by Wednesday.