New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery

Until the end of World War I, Chicot County had the largest percentage of black population in the state, due to the cotton growing industry that dominated its economy before and after the Civil War.  Many former slaves remained after emancipation as sharecroppers until mechanization led to relocation of large portions of the black population to northern urban centers.  With Lake Village as the county seat, many plantation owners after the Civil War maintained residences in town for social and business purposes, complete with a host of servants that maintained their “urban farmsteads” and oversaw the daily routines of cooking, cleaning and entertaining.  New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, on this site since 1860, became the religious center and burial ground for this population living and working within the community of Lake Village.  Other than the cemetery, virtually no documentation of this black community and its history has survived from which to gain further information. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places.