The East cemetery is located on eighty-five acres at 4280 East Thirteen Mile Road in Warren. The West cemetery, a sixty-two acre site, is located at 25200 Plymouth Road in Redford. Gracelawn, a fifty-acre cemetery, is located at 5710 North Saginaw in Flint.

Prior to 1925, blacks in Detroit suffered unspeakable indignities because of the white-operated cemeteries. A few of these cemeteries allowed burials of blacks but only on certain designated days and at inconvenient burial hours. Added to this were the exorbitant fees that were charged for the burial of a black person.

The Detroit Memorial Park Association was incorporated in July 1925.