Palm Grove Cemetery is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

near downtown

Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...

, the capital city of

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

. During the Tolbert administration, the cemetery became the focus of the national Decoration Day, which continued to be observed after Tolbert was murdered in a 1980 coup d'état and his body dumped at the cemetery. Once the country's national cemetery, it was threatened during June 1982 by Monrovia municipal authorities. In a complaint to the

People's Redemption Council The People's Redemption Council (PRC) was a military junta that ruled Liberia from 1980 to 1984. It was established after the 1980 Liberian coup d'état wherein Samuel Doe seized power on 12 April 1980. The Council, with Doe as its chairman, p ...

, the city noted that the cemetery was being used as a waste dump and was so full of graves that new burials were being conducted unsafely, even though increasing numbers of local residents were being buried in Paynesville. The authorities requested permission to close the cemetery to new burials and to move the cemetery to a new location, away from its original Center Street site, but the cemetery remains in Monrovia to date.

Notable burials

* Martin Henry Freeman (1826–1889) – University president *

Henry Highland Garnet Henry Highland Garnet (December 23, 1815 – February 13, 1882) was an American abolitionist, minister, educator, orator, and diplomat. Having escaped as a child from slavery in Maryland with his family, he grew up in New York City. He was ed ...

(1815–1882) – African-American abolitionist, minister, educator and orator *

Joseph Jenkins Roberts Joseph Jenkins Roberts (March 15, 1809 – February 24, 1876) was an African-American merchant who emigrated to Liberia in 1829, where he became a politician. Elected as the first (1848–1856) and seventh (1872–1876) president of Liberi ...

(1809–1876) – President of Liberia *

Hilary Teague Hilary Teague (1802 – May 21, 1853), sometimes written as Hilary Teage, was a Liberian merchant, journalist, and politician in the early years of the West African nation of Liberia. A native of the state of Virginia in the United States, he ...

(1805–1853) – founding father of Liberia *

William Tolbert William Richard Tolbert Jr. (13 May 1913 – 12 April 1980) was a Liberian politician who served as the 20th president of Liberia from 1971 until his assassination in 1980. Tolbert was an Americo-Liberian and trained as a civil servant before en ...

(1913–1980) – President of Liberia

References

External links

* {{coord, 6.3114, N, 10.8061, W, source:wikidata, display=title Cemeteries in Liberia Monrovia National cemeteries