Activists vow to honor site of unmarked graves
Members of group travel to Sugar Land to pray for remains
Under a canopy of crepe myrtles among the manicured environs of Sugar Land, activists stood in near triple-digit heat Sunday afternoon to pay homage to the African-Americans buried in unmarked graves just feet away on the site of a Fort Bend ISD construction project.
They gathered with their children, relatives and friends, waving pan-African and Black Panther flags, as community leaders spoke through a megaphone about the some 95 graves that have been found at the site along University Boulevard and Chatham.
Those buried are believed to have been part of the state’s convict-leasing system, in which prisoners, primarily AfricanAmericans, were contracted out for labor. The statewide program was initiated shortly after slavery was outlawed more than 150 years ago.
“We’re going to give these ancestors a proper acknowledgment,” said Kofi Taharka, national chairman of the National Black United Front, as the group walked in a procession alongside the construction site.
In April, Fort Bend ISD halted construction on a portion of the site where it is building a technical center. A state district judge last month granted the school district permission to exhume the remains.
Archaeologists have determined that all of the remains
are African-Americans and all but one is male. They range in age from teenagers to 70 years old. Their bodies have muscular builds that indicate they performed heavy labor from a young age.
The burials took place from 1878 to around 1911, according to an estimate from a consulting firm.
Taharka and others called on city, school district and other officials to consider the scope of the graves.
“They should take wise counsel from experts who are African people, black people to determine the appropriate next step,” Taharka said.
The group praised and prayed for Reginald Moore, guardian of the nearby Old Imperial Farm Cemetery, who had long believed additional graves existed in the area.
Moore, who was at the event Sunday, had warned the school district not to build on the site. He has been studying the history of the area for years and believes there are more hidden graves in areas nearby. As do others.
“The grave sites they found is unbelievable, disheartening,” said Jinaki Muhammad, who was there with her 5-yearold nephew. “This could be prevalent all over Houston.”
Moore wants a museum to be built to tell the story of the convict-leasing system. He said he has a meeting with the city manager Thursday to discuss a possible memorial.
The National Black United Front organized the event, which they promoted as the “Caravan to Sugarland.”
Before leaving for the site Sunday, members of the group gathered in front of their building, a two-story, red brick home on Southmore Boulevard in the Third Ward, a historically black neighborhood.
“We going to acknowledge our ancestors. We’re going to commune with their spirit. We’re going to ask for direction on a path forward,” Taharka said.
He and about 30 others, including children, joined hands in a circle.
“I love to look at the children because this is why we’re doing this,” Taharka said before the group bowed their heads in prayer.
They then got into their cars and followed in a caravan to the site.