Lincoln Cemetery (Cook County)

Lincoln Cemetery is a historically African American cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois, United States. The cemetery is about 112 acres (45 ha) with over 16,000 interments.

Lincoln Cemetery
Details
Established	1911
Location	Cook County, Illinois
Country	United States
Coordinates	41°40′12″N 87°42′09″W
Owned by	Dignity Memorial
Size	112 acres (45 ha)
No. of interments	over 16,000
Website	Lincoln Cemetery
Find a Grave	Lincoln Cemetery

History

Founded in 1911 by local Black business leaders, the cemetery is next to the Oak Hill Cemetery.^[1] The cemetery is noteworthy for the number of famous African-American Chicagoans buried there, among them several notable blues and jazz musicians, as well as notables in literature, sports, and history.^[2]

Notable graves

• Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1870–1940), newspaper publisher^[2]
• Albert Ammons (1907–1949), jazz/boogie-woogie pianist
• Gene Ammons (1925–1974), jazz tenor saxophonist (son of Albert Ammons)
• Lillian Hardin Armstrong^[3] (1898–1971), jazz singer/pianist/second wife of Louis Armstrong (Garden of Peace Mausoleum)^[2]
• Charles Avery (1892–1974), blues and boogie-woogie pianist^[4]
• Big Bill Broonzy (1893–1958), blues musician
• Gwendolyn Brooks^[5] (1917–2000), poet, first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize^[2]
• James Albert Bray (1870–1944), American bishop, academic administrator and college president
• Bessie Coleman^[6] (1892–1926), early African-American aviator^[2]
• Johnny Dodds (1892–1940), jazz clarinetist
• Warren "Baby" Dodds (1898–1959), jazz drummer
• Charles "Pat" Dougherty (1879–1939) American baseball pitcher in the pre-Negro leagues
• Andrew Rube Foster (1879–1930), American baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues. "The father of black baseball."^[2]
• William "Bill" Francis (1879–1942) third baseman and manager in the Negro leagues.
• King Daniel Ganaway, photographer^[7] (d. 1944)
• Octavius Granady (1872–1928), committeeman in the "Bloody 20th Ward", killed by the mobster Morris Elder.^[2]
• Emma Griffin (1877–1918), Vaudeville performer and entrepreneur ^[8]
• Vivian Harsh (1890–1960), first African American librarian in the Chicago Public Library, created a monumental research collection on black life.^[2]
• Al Hibbler (1915–2001), American baritone vocalist.^[9]
• Papa Charlie Jackson (1887–1938), American blues singer, songster and banjoist/guitarist
• Tom "College Boy" Johnson (1889–1926) American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues
• Frank Leland (1869–1914), American baseball player, manager, and executive in the pre-Negro leagues^[10]
• Lillian C. Moseley (1905–2007) Bronzeville socialite, worked for notables on both sides of the law: Al Capone, Attorney Roy Washington, The Honorable Harold Washington, first African American Mayor of Chicago and the Honorable Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz
• Marian Robinson (1937–2024), Mother of Michelle Obama
• Jimmy Reed (1925–1976), blues musician
• Elder Lucy Smith (1875–1952) first woman to pastor a major Chicago congregation, early radio evangelist.^[2]
• Blanche Wilkins Williams (1876–1936), educator of deaf children
• A. Wilberforce Williams (1865–1940), African American physician, teacher and journalist
• Jesse Ernest Wilkins Sr. (1894–1959) Undersecretary of Labor in the Eisenhower administration.
• Ella (Wilson) Wright (1884^[11]–1959)^[12] schoolteacher and mother of writer Richard Wright 1908–1960.
• At least 14 victims of the Chicago race riot of 1919, including murdered teenager Eugene Williams, whose homicide touched off the riots.^[13][14][15]