Established in 1826 as "The Colored Cemetery," Southern Hill Cemetery is the first and largest African-American cemetery in Gadsden. In 1918, the Mosaic Templars of America, a fraternal organization that provided African Americans with death and burial insurance, established a smaller cemetery here. Also known as "6th Street Cemetery," it is the final resting place for many veterans who served in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII and Korean War, as well as many slaves, early settlers, children, landowners, sharecroppers, educators, preachers, steel mill laborers, and business men and women. The lineage of owners was John W. Slack from 1826 to 1876, the Etowah County Commission from 1876 to 1906, T.J. and Lily Woodliff from 1906 to 1918, A.W. Woodliff from 1918 to 1935, the Mosaic Templars of America in 1918, and Grace Heritage Community Development from 2013 to the present.