African Cemetery No. 2

Burials at the site of African Cemetery #2 date back to the early 1800's. In 1869, the Union Benevolent Society No. 2 purchased the property for use as a cemetery. The cemetery covers an area of 8 acres and includes over 5000 graves, 1200 of which are identified with 600 recognizable markers. It contains the graves of enslaved African Americans, and more than 100 soldiers and veterans, a great portion of whom served as U.S. Colored Troops in the Civil War. Other veterans buried there include Buffalo Soldiers, veterans of the Spanish American War, and World War I and II veterans. The cemetery is also the burial place of Robert Charles O'Hara Benjamin, an attorney, journalist and political activist who was murdered in Lexington in 1900 for aiding African American citizens in their attempts to register to vote, and it's the original burial site of renowned thoroughbred horse racing jockey, Isaac Murphy, whose remains were later reinterred at the Kentucky Horse Park.