We oppose the College of Charleston’s current plans to build a dormitory at 106 Coming Street, part of Charleston’s former “Strangers and Negroes Burying Ground.” The project is also known as ‘Project 205’ and the ‘Coming Street Commons’.

In use from the 1790’s until 1807, the cemetery was set aside for the unknown of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Charleston: enslaved and free people of African and Indigenous descent, poor residents, immigrants, children, sailors, and victims of the Middle Passage. In the mid-20th century, the property was also home to the segregated YWCA, a landmark of Black women's organizing, community service, and Civil Rights-era resistance.

The decision to buy and develop this site was made before descendant and community engagement could meaningfully weigh whether this cemetery should be disturbed at all. The College has discounted other sites or strategies for needed student housing, and new information about archaeological complexity, cost, time, community opposition, and ethics demands reconsideration.

We call on the College to pause the 106 Coming Street Project, fully evaluate alternatives, and preserve this burial ground in place.

See the College of Charleston's information at https://coming-street-commons.charleston.edu, and information found at https://protectrespectbodies.com/.

If you would like to provide some basic information about yourself, and/or hear about upcoming meetings and events, please see this Google Form.