Mt. Hope Cemetery

Mount Hope Cemetery was founded in 1872 as a city owned African American cemetery. Mt. Hope is located on 34.5 acres at Fayetteville Street and Prospect Avenue, and is a pastoral landscaped cemetery with hills and views of downtown. The rich history of those buried there includes Clarence Lightner, the first Black mayor of Raleigh, the Reverend Henry Beard Delany, one of two Black Bishops of the Episcopal Church at the time of his death, and Colonel James H. Young, commander of a volunteer Black regiment during the Spanish-American War.

Historic Mount Hope Cemetery is a full-service cemetery with more than 34 acres of park-like green space surrounded by trees and the Capital Area Greenway System. Mount Hope is a beautiful and peaceful final resting place near the heart of downtown Raleigh that is open to the public during daylight hours. The cemetery has on-site staff to assist you and your family and help you achieve the memorialization you desire.