DeKalb County

2 dozen possible graves paved over by DeKalb County, Channel 2 investigation finds

By Sophia Choi, WSB-TV
By Sophia Choi, WSB-TV

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has uncovered a bombshell discovery where DeKalb County has paved a road over possibly more than two dozen graves.

Channel 2 Action News started looking into this story three years ago when the deacon of St. Paul Baptist Church contacted Channel 2′s Sophia Choi.

For 50 years, deacon Fred Kinnemore said no one believed him. Now, there’s finally proof.

“Just knowing that they’ve covered it up, for all this time,” Kinnemore said. “Once the deceased has been disturbed, you can’t bring it back.”

Choi obtained video from Friday when an archaeologist led a team and dug up four suspicious areas along Wilson Road.

The county hired them after our investigation 3 years ago. The team first conducted a study using sonar. It showed 26 possible graves. On Friday, they found one.

“This is exactly the type of features that we associate with finding a historic gravesite,” the archeologist said.

Choi first met Kinnemore in 2018, more than a half-century into his fight over the buried bodies at St. Paul Baptist Church.

He talked about how the small church was one of the first to stake a spot along Wilson Road when it was just a horse and buggy dirt road.

But soon came others -- white residents -- who Kinnemore said did not take kindly to a Black church in their neighborhood.

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The church was eventually moved to Nelms Drive in the 1930s.

“Do you feel like the church was pushed out?” Choi asked Kinnemore at the time.

“The church was run out. I don’t feel it, I know it,” Kinnemore said.

But the church never gave up the cemetery.

Kinnemore’s father, a WWII vet, kept it up. After he returned from Vietnam, Kinnemore took on the task and realized the county had put a road right through the cemetery.

“If you are going to pay respects to your people, or anybody, you need to be able to get to them,” Kinnemore said.

Kinnemore’s family showed Choi what’s left of the cemetery, protected inside a fence.

They said what’s not protected are the bodies under the road. They say every time a car drives over them, it breaks their heart.

“Just thinking about my ancestors and how they have been mistreated,” said Christie Hines, Kinnemore’s niece.

The family believes racism led to situation.

“They didn’t want the Blacks in the area and the ultimate goal was to get us away by any means necessary,” Hines said. “Even paving over our ancestors.”

“Black lives matter, even in death,” said Rev. Eddie Mosley with St. Paul Baptist Church.

DeKalb County’s CEO Michael Thurmond agrees that racism likely played a role.

He met Choi at the site on Monday, saying this is the first step to healing.

“Obviously this is a sacrilege when you disturb human remains, mistreat them. So now, we’re about getting to the facts, understanding the significance, or at least the expanse of the problem, but more importantly going through the process of healing for the family members of those who are buried here,” Thurmond said.

Kinnemore and his family want their ancestors’ dignity restored.

“I think the bodies need to be moved,” Kinnemore said.

But Thurmond said it’s going to take a court order to dig up the graves.

“Obviously, if our research determines that there are additional burial sites here then the most appropriate thing to do of course is to exhume them and then hopefully reinter them in another location,” Thurmond said.

“They deserve the respect of actually uncovering it to show that there are graves here,” Kinnemore said.

The next step will happen Tuesday, when Thurmond is expected to present his findings to the full commission. A nearly 100-page report will also be a part of that.

The county plans to hold a meeting with family members and neighbors on Saturday to go over the evidence and the next steps.

Man says his ancestors are buried underneath DeKalb County road Channel 2's Sophia Choi spent weeks going over old documents and maps with the man.

Cox Media Group

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