Day of Honor: Geer Cemetery Banner Exhibit Opening Event

The Museum of Durham History, in partnership with Friends of Geer Cemetery (FOGC), is proud to announce the next phase of its ongoing exhibition Unearthing Stories of Geer Cemetery: Using Archaeology to Reclaim, Restore, and Respect Sacred Space. The latest installment, Day of Honor Posts, opens with a free public reception at the Museum.

This outdoor banner exhibition, installed around the museum’s gazebo, highlights the lives of ten individuals buried at Geer Cemetery, one of Durham’s earliest African American cemeteries. These stories are drawn from the Day of Honor series originally shared on Friends of Geer Cemetery’s social media platforms. The Day of Honor project began with 89 individuals identified through these rare monuments—some whose stories are now publicly celebrated through this exhibit. Learn more about those buried at Geer Cemetery, like Katie Roundtree.

This banner series builds on the Museum’s spring 2025 exhibit and is part of a larger effort to illuminate an aspect of local African American history that has long gone unrecognized. Names such as Pearson and Faucette are seen on Durham street signs and schools, but many more residents have yet to be acknowledged. Day of Honor Posts seeks to change that.

Geer Cemetery, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in October 2024, is a vital historical site for Durham. While FOGC’s dedicated landscape volunteers work to restore the cemetery grounds, its research volunteers spend hours poring through genealogy records, census data, newspaper archives, and city directories.

In Partnership with Friends of Geer Cemetery

As part of the ongoing programming for the exhibit, Unearthing Stories of Geer Cemetery, the Museum of Durham History and Friends of Geer Cemetery are partnering to host and promote events and public programs exploring the stories, archaeology, and preservation of one of Durham’s earliest African American cemeteries.