The Freedman's Cemetery, or Freemen's Cemetery, was established in 1861 as a burial ground for the early African American population in Dallas, Texas.
[Cheshire, Ashley (1990-07-30). "Highway project uncovers history". '']Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company.
History
In May 1905, Amon G. Car ...
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Retrieved 2023-07-24 – via Newspapers.com
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. It was an active burial site from 1869 until 1907, supported by the historic Black settlement of
Freeman's town founded by formerly enslaved people (the town was located roughly from
Deep Ellum, Dallas
Deep Ellum is a neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, home to a diverse array of arts venues, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, businesses, and urban residential units near downtown in East Dallas. Its name is based on a corruption of the area' ...
).
The cemetery was lost sometime after the building of the
North Central Expressway
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
in the mid-1940s, which cut through the space.
Local authorities had removed the grave stones and covered the cemetery with a lawn to form a city park.
In the summer of 1990, the Freedman's Cemetery burial ground was rediscovered when the park was renovated; some 800 marked graves were found and an estimated 1,200 unmarked graves.
The Freedman's Cemetery Memorial was created in 1990, to honor those that were buried and provide community healing.
The memorial is part of a cemetery tour in
Uptown, Dallas
Uptown is a PID (public improvement district) and a dense neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. Uptown is north of and adjacent to downtown Dallas, and is bordered by US 75 ( Central Expressway) on the east, N Haskell Avenue on the northeast, the Katy ...
, and sits near the Emanu-El Cemetery, the Calvary Cemetery, and the
Greenwood Cemetery.
It has designation as a
Dallas Landmark
Dallas Landmark is a designation by the City of Dallas and the Dallas Landmark Commission for historic buildings and districts in Dallas, Texas, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historica ...
since 1992, and is part of the State Historic Marker program in Texas since 1993.
See also
*
Freedmen's Cemetery (disambiguation)
*
List of cemeteries in Texas
References
{{Authority control
1860s establishments in Texas
African-American cemeteries in Texas
Cemeteries in Dallas
Cemeteries established in the 1860s