The Frederick Douglass Memorial Park is the cemetery on State Island where Chief Rabbi W.A. Matthew and many of the founders of the Commandment Keepers Congregation are buried. According to the New York Daily News, a lawsuit has been filed against the current managers of the cemetery charging them with destroying a historic moment and for poor maintenance of the grave sites. This eighty-five-year-old cemetery was once a beacon of Black self-sufficiency during an era of Jim Crow segregation. Rather than bear the indignity of being buried in a segregated cemetery, Israelites of that generation purchased plots together in a cemetery named to honor the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
When I was a boy, Chief Rabbi Levy would take the congregation on trips to the Frederick Douglass Cemetery. We would arrive with shovels and rakes so that we could manicure the final resting places of our leaders and teachers. Sadly, this practice has not been done in many years. It is a mitzvah to visit the graves of loved ones—particularly before High Holy Days and on the Yahrzeit of their passing. The Israelite Board of Rabbis will be organizing a trip to the Frederick Douglass cemetery in August.
For details about the history of this cemetary, the current controversy, and to learn more about the other famous African Americans who are buried there, read the full news story.