Freedman's Bureau Yard/Contraband Yard Cemetery
 

This cemetery established during the Civil War, possibly March 1866 or before.. It was located on the southwest corner of Lauderdale and Jackson Streets (Jackson became Iowa St then E H Crump Blvd).

An article in the Memphis Evening Post newspaper Apr 20, 1866  gives this explanation; "Gen. Fisk has ordered Gen. Runkle, Chief Supt. of the Freedman's Bureau for the District of West Tennessee, to notify

our city authorities that the Bureau will no longer relieve the city from responsibility of burying its own colored paupers. The cemetery, set art out of the Bureaugard estate, will be open to  all freedman, but the Bureau will not be at the expense of their burial." Freedman's Bank closed in 1859.