West Point Cemetery

West Point Cemetery was Norfolk’s first municipal cemetery for African Americans. An 1827 ordinance provided for their interment in a section of Potter’s Field just north of the borough limits. That section was set off exclusively for the burial of African Americans in 1852 and was named Calvary Cemetery in 1873. When a larger Calvary Cemetery was established several blocks to the east in 1877, the older cemetery resumed the name Potter’s Field. In 1885, at the suggestion of James E. Fuller, Norfolk’s first black councilman, Potter’s Field was named West Point Cemetery, reflecting its location at the western end of Elmwood Cemetery. After a portion of West Point was set aside for Union veterans, the black community raised funds to erect a statue of a Union soldier there. Completed in 1920, the statue represents Norfolk native Sgt. William Carney of Company C, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment, the first African American whose actions earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Norfolk, Virginia · United States