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The Field Revisited: Tom Lee On “Your Brother’s Blood”

Burial Marker No. 53 at The Field
Megan Ledbetter / The Bitter Southerner
Burial Marker No. 53 at The Field

Outside Chattanooga, there is The Field.

Thousands of people - most of them, Black - were buried there from the late 19th into the early 20th century in a cemetery known as a “potter’s field,” the final resting place for those who could not afford to buy their own plot.

And then, the cemetery was abandoned - and forgotten - until this century, when it was rediscovered during the construction of the White Oak Connector Trail from Stringer’s Ridge in Chattanooga to White Oak Park in Red Bank.

Attorney Tom Lee is a partner with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in Nashville.

He wrote about The Field in “Your Brother’s Blood” for “The Bitter Southerner” - with photos by Megan Ledbetter, an artist and educator in Red Bank.

The Field in October 2023
Megan Ledbetter / The Bitter Southerner
The Field in October 2023

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