Dedicated in 1995, African American Heritage Park honors Black individuals, organizations, institutions, and movements that helped build and shape the city and community. The park preserves the one-acre Black Baptist Cemetery, established in 1885 by the Silver Leaf Society, and reflects Alexandria's rich African American history. Its themes of Sanctuary, Freedom, Civil Rights, and Remembrance, along with sculptures by Jerome Meadows, highlight accomplishments in the city and the people known and unknown buried on this site. The African American community of Alexandria had a rich and varied social life lived parallel to the other community, but their stories were rarely brought to public recognition.