The fund was organized by Raymond 'Skip' Henderson, a former social worker turned vintage guitar dealer and event promoter (New York Guitar Show), in order to create a legal conduit to get financial support to rural African-American church communities in Mississippi, and to memorialize the contributions of numerous musicians interred in rural cemeteries without grave markers.
The renewed efforts of the Mount Zion Memorial Fund since 2010 have been spearheaded by Tyler DeWayne Moore, a historian and scholar based out of Oxford, Mississippi.
The relatives of Tommy Johnson and other interments in Warm Springs CME Church Cemetery, obtained a permanent fifteen foot wide and half-a-mile long easement to the important site, due in large part to efforts and compelling arguments of Moore, who took over as executive director in January 2014.
In the period between 2014 and 2017, the Mount Zion Memorial Fund dedicated five additional memorials, including the headstone of Frank Stokes in the abandoned Hollywood Cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee; the flat companion stone of Ernest Lawlars in Walls, Mississippi; and in Greenville, Mississippi, the flat markers of T-Model Ford and Eddie Cusic, and the unique headstone of Mamie Davis (also known as Mamie Galore).
The latter assists in restoring these two massive and abandoned African American cemeteries in Memphis, "back to a beautiful place of rest for all" interments, including Frank Stokes and Furry Lewis.
The following year a large gravestone for Big Joe Williams, who lies buried in a rural pasture near Crawford, Mississippi, was purchased through a collective effort of musicians led by California music journalist Dan Forte, while gathered at Clifford Antone's nightclub in Austin, Texas.
The memorial was unveiled on October 9, 1994; the inscription by Dan Forte: "King of the Nine String Guitar", and a eulogy by musician and former Williams' sideman, Charlie Musselwhite.
This marker was financed through the Mount Zion Fund with the help of musician Kenny Brown and by Chris Strachwitz, Arhoolie Records and John Fogerty.
Shortly after the Chatmon ceremony, again with the help of Euphus Ruth, a memorial headstone for Sonny Boy Nelson, was placed on November 4, 1998, at the Evergreen Cemetery in Metcalfe, Mississippi.
[4] On October 20, 2001, the unveiling ceremony was conducted in the town square of Crystal Springs, Mississippi by the Mayor of Crystal Springs with over twenty members of Johnson's extended family in attendance as well as Johnson's biographer Dr. David Evans, John Sinclair and a contingent of people from radio station WWOZ in New Orleans, many local musicians, blues fans, and local media.
[7] Following work by the Mount Zion Memorial Fund, on May 8, 2019, a new headstone for Charlie Burse was unveiled during a ceremony at his graveside, in Rose Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.