Vandals, sometime between 7 p.m. on March 13 and 1 p.m. on March 14 sprayed profanity-laced messages on at least 35 gravestones at the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church Cemetery on Chamblee-Tucker Road.
The messages on the gravestones included racial epitaphs, as well as profanity. One message scrawled on several areas said, “Crazy to be dead.” Other messages contained names, and still others indecipherable scrawls. A good number of vases and clay pots were also smashed.
“It’s a despicable act to dishonor the deceased,” said congregant Tina Graves, who is spearheading an effort to clean up the cemetery. “The act itself is horrible, but what was written on them is worse.”
More than 1,400 people are buried in the cemetery, representing four generations, said congregant Vicki Watkins.
A group from the church is trying to find a vendor to remove the graffiti, with preliminary estimates topping $10,000, Graves said.
The repair involves the application of a solvent called “elephant snot” which penetrates deeply into concrete, cement, brick, grout, and stone. The solvent alone will cost at least $500, she said.
While the volunteers are soliciting donations to help with the clean-up effort, they have asked people to not attempt to remove the paint themselves, as using the wrong solvent could cause increased damage.
Further complicating the matter is the fact that the church has no ownership over the plots – they are individually owned by the families whose relatives are buried there. The process of tracking down survivors has proven to be a complicated process, Graves said.
Pleasant Hill is a small congregation with an aging population who can’t always make it to weekly services, Watkins said.
This is a developing story. Rough Draft Atlanta has reached out to the DeKalb County Police for more information through an open records request.
