Lowcountry Boy Scouts update historic African American cemetery

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - A Lowcountry Boy Scout troop updates an African American historic cemetery in the Mount Pleasant area.

The Historic Scanlonville Cemetery, also known as, Remley Point Cemetery, has headstones dating back to 1850 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Life Scout, Greshman Kinard, wanted to do something different for his Eagle Scout project, hoping to give back to his community.

“To be honest, everybody else that does scout stuff just kind of build benches or build kayak racks and that type of stuff. I live down in this house over here, so I kind of wanted to do something I could come back and look up on and in the community I live in.”

The 16-year-old reached out to the president of the East Cooper Civic Cub Edward Lee to talk about ways they could help improve the site.

“I just think it’s super neat the fact that the culture is still here and the fact that I get to be part of this is just an honor—me being able to preserve and help and keeping this area the way it is now,” Kinard said.

East Cooper Civic Club owns the property and plans to preserve it the way it was designed.

“So it should be accessible, but I also found that it doesn’t necessarily have to be manicured, you know grass everywhere, looked like it was freshly mowed. It should go back to nature the way nature wants it so that’s how we approach it, and I’ve been told that’s the proper way to approach it,” Lee said.

Lee said that those who are buried here have a deep history in Charleston with loved ones in the area.

Kinard walked through what both he and Lee envisioned for this project. He said they installed posts with ropes along the pathway of the cemetery.

“They’ve had trouble with people coming in and the hearse running off the road and not being able to find out where it is,” he said.

Kinard said following this work day, he’ll be able to go back and finish up the project and hopes other scouts can add to the same project in the future.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.