The Newman family, headed by former slave Gardner Newman, born in 1859, and his wife, Frances "Fanny" Owens-Newman, born in 1870, from Yazoo, Mississippi, had at least 11 children. One of their children, Robert "Bob" Newman, born in 1895, and his wife, Hattie Newman, born in 1894, worked as sharecroppers for most of their lives. A few decades after slavery, the family migrated from Yazoo, Mississippi, to Quitman, Mississippi, in the 1930s, before settling in Walls, Mississippi, in the 1940s. Bob and Hattie Newman had several children, most of whom are buried in this cemetery: William Newman, Willie Mae Newman, Roseta Newman, Merinda Newman, Robert "Bob" Newman, Luvenia Newman, J B Newman, T J Newman, Bertha Lee Newman, and Robert Newman. Determined not to succumb to the remnants of slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, Bob set out with roughly 50 cents in his pocket for better opportunities in nearby Tennessee. Today his descendants include successful professionals in education, medicine, law, business, and real estate development.