Location Information
(for the Beulah Cemetery)
Name:Beulah Cemetery
Address:Openwood Street
City/County:Vicksburg, Warren County
Architectural Information
Construction Date:1884
Registration Information
NR Listing Date:23 Oct 1992
    MPS:Historic Resources of Vicksburg, Mississippi
View National Register Nomination Form
Mississippi Landmark Information
Designated:04-16-2010
Recorded:03-09-2016
Book/Vol. No.:Book 1590 Page 211
Context/Comments
Beulah Cemetery is one of the most intact historic properties associated with the growth and development of the African-American community in Vicksburg. From its establishment in 1884 until the 1940s, the cemetery was the most important burial ground for African Americans in the Vicksburg area and remains today as an intact and visible landmark for the black community. Beulah was established by the Vicksburg Tabernacle No. 19 Independent Order of Brothers and Sisters of Love and Charity, a fraternal order that had wide support among the black community, in 1884. The organization purchased fifty-two acres along the old Jackson Road (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.) for $1000 from Harvey and Lucy Shannon. Prior to the development of this cemetery, African Americans in Vicksburg were buried in church cemeteries or in private yards.

This cemetery was listed on the National Register on 23 October 1992, from a nomination prepared by Nancy H. Bell, executive director of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation. It was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 4 August 1987.
Brief Description
Beulah Cemetery is a 14.5 acre rolling tract located off of Martin Luther King Blvd., abutting the Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg. More than 5,500 graves are scattered across the grassy tree-studded cemetery. Erosion of the loess soil common in Vicksburg has created swales and high points and a number of grave markers have fallen or been lost due to the movement of the land beneath them. Three dirt roads access the cemetery from the city street—the main road into the cemetery enters through a functional gate and skirts the southeastern edge of the property, while two drives lead off from this road, running along ridges into the cemetery proper. The cemetery property originally contained 52 acres, and today a section of the remaining 14.5 acres is forested, with grave markers among the trees.
Historic Information
Named for the proverbial Beulah Land of biblical origin, the cemetery documents the existence of generations of people for whom otherwise there might be no surviving material memorial. Among those prominent people buried at Beulah are the founders of the black funeral homes, the Jeffersons and the Dillons; Rosa A. Temple, an African American educator for whom Vicksburg’s Rosa A. Temple High School is named; G. M. McIntyre, principal of Cherry Street School, for whom another school is named; Robert Banks Marshall, the city’s first black postal employee; and William Tillmon Jones, Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias from 1889-1906.
Reports
Beulah Cemetery: Mississippi Landmark Significance Report Mar 19 2010 Jennifer Baughn, MDAH