INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A community conversation this week focuses on the past of one of the most hallowed places in Indianapolis – just as city planners, developers, historians, and others grapple over the site’s future.

Greenlawn was the first public cemetery in the city, comprised, of four separate cemeteries, according to historian Leon Bates, and has been the center of many current headlines.

Bates has been a leading voice in the current conversation about what should happen – or not happen – at the Greenlawn Cemetery site. Bates says part of its decline in the early 20th century led to the excavation and removal of some of the remains buried there during recent planning for Eleven Park, the proposed new stadium for the Indy Eleven.

“There is a Black section in Greenlawn, and it is believed to be the largest African American burial ground in the state of Indiana,” Bates says. “It was forgotten about until this issue came up almost two years ago.”

Plans for Eleven Park pushed the area’s past into the current spotlight, initially as Indy Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir and city leaders stood together to start the project – then more recently in the very public fracture that formed with the city’s plans to develop a major league soccer stadium.

As that played out, historians like Bates made an ever-louder plea to remember the bodies still buried there.

Bates tells us he is convinced the city will follow through on its new plans for respectful excavation and remediation at the construction site for the Henry Street bridge over the White River. He is also hopeful that the momentum for the city’s own soccer plan over the Eleven project will end with Greenlawn’s uncounted other remains staying undisturbed underneath a park.

“(Otherwise) they’re going to have to remove all the remains and they have a 23 acre site. So if it’s 23 acres and 650 people per acre, you’re up to somewhere close to 15,000 people,” Bates calculates.

On Thursday, Bates invites all to attend a talk at the Indiana Landmarks Center. “We’re going to talk about the history of Greenlawn. From its creation in 1821 up to its abandonment in the 1920s. And then what happened to it from the 1920s to today, where it was built upon multiple times.”

His upcoming talk is part of the Freetown Village Conversations in Indiana African American History and Culture.

There is no charge to attend, but registration is recommended. Bates says he will lead a Q&A session after his lecture.