Cemeteries have stories to tell, voices to unearth--and lessons from the past that we can draw upon to better shape the future. Authors of If These Stones Could Talk Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills bring fresh light to a forgotten corner of American history that began to in a small cemetery in central New Jersey. Buck and Mills started their journey through the past as two middle aged African American women with busy but quiet lives. Friends for most of their adult lives, they are both board members of the Stoutsburg Cemetery Association, a cemetery that is nestled in New Jersey's Sourland Mountain region. The Stoutsburg Cemetery was purchased by three Black men in the early 19th century as a location to bury Blacks with honor and dignity.. When Buck and Mills got an unexpected call for help, what began as a search through the woods for gravestone markers soon had them rummaging through land deeds and making relentless calls to state officials, archeologists and reporters. Their foray into historic preservation work convinced Buck and Mills that they had a lot more work left to do to connect African American history to local and national history books-within which they still felt largely absent from the most visible narratives in United States history. If These Stones Could Talk includes chapter titles such as "The African American Founding Families of the Sourland Region," "Trapped in the Purgatory of History," "Pioneers of Liberty: Local African American Military History" and "Queen Hester's Home Remedies and Recipes" among many others. In warm but unflinching voices Buck and Mills offer readers a unique window into our past which connects us directly with the present. These stories, including dozens of oral histories, consecrate the collected lives of a minority Black community in a predominantly White region, a pattern of community that reflects a larger, deeply important but typical overlooked national story in small towns all over the United States.