Established in 1891, Evergreen Cemetery became a preeminent resting place for many of Virginia's most influential African-American residents, including Maggie L. Walker, president and founder of the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, and John Mitchell, Jr., a champion of African-American rights and editor of the Richmond Planet newspaper. J. Henry Brown, a stonemason, designed many of the tombstones erected there. By the early 1970s, the cemetery had fallen into disrepair, and in 1975 volunteers from the Maggie L. Walker Historical Foundation led an effort to restore Evergreen to its original glory.
