Veterans Day Ceremony To Be Held Saturday at Rye African-American Cemetery

A Veterans Day ceremony to honor those buried at the African-American Cemetery in Rye will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, commemorating fallen servicepeople dating back to the Civil War.

Located at 215 North St. (adjacent to Greenwood Union Cemetery), the African-American Cemetery was deeded to the town on June 27, 1860, by Underhill and Elizabeth Halsted. Saturday’s ceremony is organized by the cemetery committee, Port Chester/Rye Branch NAACP, Building Community Bridges and American Legion Post #93.

“Over the years the importance of this special cemetery in the history of our community and our nation has been recognized as it is now listed on the National, New York State and Westchester County Registers of Historic Places,” according to a press release issued by the committee.

According to the committee’s website, the cemetery site was deeded, according to the Halsted’s original language, ““(to) be forever after kept and used for the purposes of a cemetery or burial place for the colored inhabitants of the said Town of Rye and its vicinity free and clear of any charge therefore.”

“In the latter part of his life, Underhill Halsted became a fervent follower of the Methodist movement, which was profoundly opposed to slavery,” the website says. “However, being anti-slavery did not mean one was not prejudiced. Such bias led African Americans to separate from the Methodist church and form their own Methodist organization, African Methodist Episcopal Zion or AME Zion. The presence of two AME Zion churches in nearby Mamaroneck and Port Chester could have also motivated Halsted to gift the cemetery to local free persons of color.”

An interactive map of the cemetery, noting the locations of graves for those lost in specific wars, is attached as a PDF. Civilians also are buried there.