The United Colored American Cemetery is a historic African American burial ground. It was founded in 1883 but includes many graves moved from an earlier cemetery in Avondale, so the earliest legible tombstone is from 1832. The grounds were laid out by prominent landscape architect Adolph Strauch, who also designed Spring Grove Cemetery. This is the resting place of Underground Railroad figures as well as writers, politicians, businesspeople, artists, Civil Rights leaders, and many military veterans, including at least 55 African American veterans of the Civil War. The cemetery was founded by the United Colored American Association, but by 1968, the original cemetery association no longer existed, and at the request of Councilman Charles P. Taft, ownership was transferred to the Union Baptist Church. Prominent persons buried in United American Cemetery include:
William H. Beckley (1817-1880), Underground Railroad Conductor.
John Isom Gaines (1821-1859), abolitionist.
Priscilla Jane Thompson (1871-1942), poet, author of Ethiope Lays.
Frank A. B. Hall (1870-1934), first African American elected to Cincinnati City Council.
Horace Suddeth (1898-1957), businessman, owner of Cincinnati’s Manse Hotel.
Jennie Jackson DeHart (1855-1910), star of Nashville’s Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Isaac Nelson Ross, Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal denomination.
Irvine Garland Penn (1866-1930), journalist, officer in the Methodist Freedman’s Aid Society.
Phoebe Boots Allen, deaconess in the AME Church and pioneering social worker.
Henry Ellis (1846-1914), Civil War Corporal in the 54th Massachusetts (“Glory”) Regiment.
Charles H. Thompson (1835-1902), early voting rights advocate and Episcopal priest.