Wake Wednesday - Abraham and Correnna Justice of Low End Community, Apex NC

We have featured the Apex StoryMap before. It was created to celebrate the sesquicentennial (150 years) of Apex and its surrounding communities and each link provides a virtual tour of the communities.

The StoryMap brought the Justices and their neighbors in the black Low End community to my attention. Abraham Lincoln Justice and his wife Correnna were social activists in their community. They believed in helping their neighbors by providing financial resources, land for affordable housing that came to be called Justice Heights, donating building materials for the construction of the Apex First Baptist Church. They developed the Justice Cemetery to ensure their neighbors had an affordable burial option. 

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All of these sites that the Justices invested their time and energy are highlighted and pinned on the Apex StoryMap. Visit the Low End link and you will find others among their neighbors who were equally community-minded. This profile illustrates the best of this small close knit group of neighbors who took the interests of all to heart. 

I looked for the Justice Cemetery in the Wake Cemetery Survey. I did not find it listed in the Holly Springs township where it is located as referenced on the StoryMap. I did find a Find A Grave listing for it which states that the Justice Cemetery was started by the Justices in the 1950's and is now owned by Claude Thorpe, a nephew. There are about 3 acres remaining unused of the original 6 acres. There are 537 burials, most with funeral markers instead of stones and about 3 acres remain unused for burial. This large cemetery will be added to the Cemetery Survey files with links to the StoryMap and Find a Grave. It is sad to see that it was overlooked in the original survey.

In addition to the Low End Community, you can read about other black communities at the Apex StoryMap including Friendship and Whops. New Hill became interracial when J. C. Garnes opened a service station in the 1970s. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph W. James also relocated to New Hill in the 70s to open a family care home.

There is a lot of history in the Apex StoryMap both black a white. I hope you will take some time to see all the history it has to share.


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