Cemetery’s designation would honor past, present

History is what we cherish; neglected gardens we discover and nurture, special people we won’t allow to be forgotten. Whether we celebrate it in public ceremony or private commemoration, the importance of celebrating history is that we also teach it.

Unmarked graves are lives that, if not already forgotten, will soon be lost in the brushes of time. Stories not told equate to history unheard and forgotten.

Velmil Clay’s father and three brothers are buried in Hockley-clay Cemetery. Once its restoration is complete, it can be designated a historical Texas cemetery, which would protect it from encroachment.

This is why it is so important the Hockley-clay Cemetery is moving closer to historical designation. Hidden for years on San Antonio’s Northeast Side, the Black cemetery, which dates to 1873, was undetected until San Antonio landscape architect and historian Everett Fly located it.

As the cemetery receded from public view and the Northern Hills subdivision was built around it, 6,000 square feet of its southern border property became part of the back yards of two homes. When a survey determining the correct boundaries of the area was completed, the homeowners ceded back to the Hockley family the 6,000 square feet. Two weeks ago, fencing was removed to prepare for a full restoration of the cemetery. Once the restoration is complete, the Hockley family can apply to have it designated a historical Texas cemetery, which would protect it from future encroachment should any of the neighboring property be sold.

The Hockley-clay Cemetery, literally and metaphorically, represents the rich veins of buried history that could teach us more about the 19thand early-20th-century lives of Black people in Bexar County.

There may be another dozen post-civil War Black cemeteries under our feet, sacred grounds on which we unknowingly tread, navigate and build.

We have more to learn about the lives they lived as enslaved people, as freemen and -women, and as pioneers.

There’s much to research about the communities they created, the churches and schools they built, the businesses they started, the traditions, stories and songs they carried and bequeathed to future generations.

Their lives are not just the stories of Black Texans but of Texas and Bexar County.