Originally named the Bartow Colored Cemetery, Evergreen Cemetery has served the African American citizens of the area since the founding of Bartow in 1851. It is the oldest documented Black cemetery in Polk County, identified by the earliest marked grave of Tamer Moore in 1891, while many unmarked graves suggest burials there since the city's beginning. At least 20 people buried there were born before the end of slavery in 1865, and Mary Gammon, born in 1817, is the earliest known birth evidenced in the two cemeteries. The site was originally owned by Nathan S. Blount and was eventually deeded to L.O. Gold, who owned the property when Tamer Moore was buried. His widow, Mrs. B.M. Gold, turned the land and administration over to Trustees Colored Cemetery of Bartow, formed by Charles H. Macon, Jack C. Longworth, Clarence C. Johnson, Thomas Gammon, Rev. Miles F. Boone, Rev. A. Laster, Sam Burkett, J.B. Franklin, and Robert Gayden. Burials on the adjacent property west of Evergreen began as early as 1913, and in 1926 Lousious Hewing of Hewing Funeral Home acquired this land from Armour Fertilizer Company and formally created Palm Cemetery. The burials include early Black pioneers, formerly enslaved people, religious, business, and community leaders, veterans, and families of Bartow and nearby communities. Marked graves show a wide range of materials and designs, including ground-level vaults and markers of marble, granite, bronze, and concrete, while many family plots are marked by gravel, copings, and fence. More than 1500 undocumented burials are in the two cemeteries, which remained active as of 2021.