Johns Creek is reversing course on its stewardship of a historic cemetery where formerly enslaved people and their descendants are buried.
The city offered to transfer ownership of the property to a nonprofit descendant group to preserve and maintain the site, but in doing so declined to provide funding for those responsibilities.
Since Johns Creek acquired Macedonia African Methodist Church Cemetery in 2020, relatives say the grounds have fallen into deeper disrepair.
The two-acre property, set on a hill off Medlock Bridge Road, remains serene, but its condition tells another story: tree limbs are strewn across the grounds, some headstones have been overturned, and others are crumbling with age.
The city approved the purchase of the property through eminent domain and Fulton County in 2020 for $52,000, and subsequently, set aside $100,000 to enhance the cemetery grounds.
Now Johns Creek officials are seeking another party to assume long-term maintenance and responsibility for the site.
Buried at the site
Records for former Milton County show the property was sold in 1905 to Black residents for a church.
According to the Johns Creek Historical Society, there are 24 marked graves and at least 110 unmarked graves at the cemetery, with burials dating back to 1893. Among the people buried at the cemetery is April Waters, a man freed from enslavement during emancipation and buried in 1910.
Waters was enslaved by George Morgan Waters, whose family originally owned the cemetery land. Historians say that George Morgan Waters’ mother was Cherokee, his father was from England, and he enslaved more than 100 people.
April Waters and his immediate family were bequeathed to George Morgan Waters’ granddaughter.
“I tell everyone to stop by the cemetery, you will feel the spirit of those buried there,” said Madyun Shahid, great-great-grandson of April Waters and a member of the nonprofit Descendants of Macedonia Church and Cemetery of Johns Creek.
Shahid and others worry that unmarked graves may lie beneath or outside the fence surrounding part of the property. Kirk Canaday, a member of the Johns Creek Historical Society, has long urged the city to transform the cemetery into a memorial garden and historic site, and use ground-penetrating radar to locate the unmarked graves. Some of those buried there, he believes, may have been victims of lynchings and other horrific deaths.
Johns Creek’s offer
Earlier this year, the city offered to transfer ownership of the cemetery to the descendants’ group for $10, on the condition that the group maintain the grounds and establish a public museum there. If they failed, ownership would revert to the city. But the agreement did not include financial support, according to documents provided by the descendants’ attorney, Kyle P. McGee.
The group would have been responsible for security, upkeep, preservation, and more, McGee said.
A reverter clause in the agreement stated that if the grounds showed signs of neglect or abandonment, the property would return to city ownership.
“We [wondered] what is considered neglect, because it’s already in neglect,” descendant Dometa Ouisley said, adding that she believes the city shows a lack of care for the property.
Ouisely said, her grandparents and at least four ancestors are buried in the cemetery.
The descendants’ request
Through McGee, the group asked the city to release the remaining $57,000 from the $100,000 funds that were set aside and to separately provide $15,000 annually over the next decade to support ongoing upkeep.
In a July letter to the city council and City Attorney Angela Couch, McGee said the group would provide cost estimates for archaeological testing, headstone restoration, landscaping, security measures, and construction of the museum.
The request was declined. Couch cited the Georgia Constitution’s gratuity clause, which prohibits cities from granting funds without a public benefit.
McGee says the clause does not apply, since preserving the cemetery and opening a museum would provide a clear public benefit.
“I just want people to do the right thing,” Shahid said. “At a minimum, they [the city] could move the fences from on top of the graves, possible graves.”
At a Sept. 8 city council meeting, several descendants spoke during public comment, urging leaders to release the remaining funds to help preserve the cemetery.
During debate over the city’s fiscal year 2026 budget, Councilwoman Stacy Skinner proposed an amendment to allocate the $76,000 balance to the cemetery, but the motion failed on a split vote.
Two days later, Couch notified McGee that the city was terminating negotiations with the descendants group.
Via email on Wednesday, Johns Creek Communications Director Bob Mullen told SaportaReport that Johns Creek will continue to maintain the property and “remains open to considering reasonable written proposals that further the purpose of preserving and protecting the cemetery.”
The city has not explained why it no longer wants to retain stewardship of the site.
