Piney Grove Cemetery is an historic African-American burial ground located in the Buckhead community of Atlanta.  The Cemetery has over three hundred graves and its founding dates back to the 1800s. In fact, Piney Grove contains tombstones dating from pre-Emancipation to the 1990s. The Cemetery is one of the last vestiges of the several African American communities that once thrived in the area including Piney Grove, Lynwood Park, Bagley Park, Johnsontown, and Armour. Piney Grove serves as an enduring connection to the vital role played by African-Americans in Atlanta’s pre- and post-Reconstruction history.

Since the 1990s, the Cemetery has been threatened by highways, high-end residential development, and lack of maintenance. Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church was demolished after significant damage in a storm in 1996. Descendants and community members have fought to make sure those buried in the Cemetery are treated with dignity and that their history is not erased. This has required advocating to prevent the removal of the burial ground by a private developer, gaining access to the Cemetery as development surrounded the site, and organizing volunteer clean-ups.

Today this effort has new energy and a growing community of stakeholders under Friends of Piney Grove Cemetery, a nonprofit focused on saving, restoring, and preserving the historic Cemetery for future generations. Under the guidance of descendants Audrey Collins and Rhonda Jackson, along with Beth Marcus, the organization raises awareness and resources and advocates to preserve a vital part of Atlanta’s history. Piney Grove Cemetery was recently recognized by The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation as one of their 2024 Places in Peril.