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Descendants of OlivewoodNestled against a
bend of Buffalo Bayou, in Houston’s First Ward in the northwestern
quadrant of Houston’s Montrose area, lies Olivewood, the city’s
first incorporated African American cemetery. It’s been a jungle for
years - the headstones have been literally buried under massive carpets
of vegetation. Extending over an estimated 8 acres, only the front
quarter of the cemetery has been successfully cleared of the seemingly
endless tropical abundance including poison ivy and oak. For a long
time, only the larger mortuary architecture rising above the undergrowth
has hinted at Olivewood’s location. Olivewood was
incorporated in 1875, a mere 10 years after emancipation arrived for
Texas slaves when, on June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger debarked in
Galveston and made the official announcement a couple of months after
the actual end of the war. The cemetery, the people who incorporated it
and the people now resting in it are part of a much larger history of
Houston and its African American community. A number of Houston’s prominent African Americans are buried in Olivewood, including:
Each of these men are accompanied by the remains of hundreds of their community members who lived and worked alongside them as shopkeepers, seamstresses, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and soldiers. The Descendants of Olivewood are dedicated to the reclamation of this cemetery for the benefit of the present and future generations of Houston. We are committed to restoring, preserving and maintaining Olivewood Cemetery as a historic, educational, charitable, religious and cultural site of importance. The Descendants of Olivewood have a big job ahead of them and we need your help! We need people to help us by:
For more information, please contact Margott Williams. View more photos on the Olivewood Cemetery Flickr page. |