The community of Taylor, Texas, came together on Saturday to unveil a monument dedicated to honoring the hundreds of unmarked gravesites belonging to Black residents.
The Historic African American Burial Section is a reclaimed site at Taylor City Cemetery dedicated to honoring what was once a segregated area of the cemetery reserved for Taylor’s Black population, Fox 7 Austin reports. The monument stands before a vast gravesite, where grass far outnumbers headstones, despite approximately 750 individuals resting beneath it.
From the front gates of the cemetery, thousands of graves are visible—except for a section of land toward the back. This area, reserved for Black burials, remained unmarked for over a century.
The monument now honors those who never received a grave marker. Some of the oldest graves date back 140 years, predating Taylor’s establishment as a city.
“I want people to know where we came from,” said Leslie Mae Washington Hill, the Welfare Workers Club president.
“I feel like we are finally coming to know how to love each other.”
City councilmember Gerald Anderson acknowledges his ancestors are among the unmarked graves.
“I think people being seen and being recognized goes a long way in this life and the next life and the afterlife, you know,” Anderson added.
“Just for the family to have some closure by being able to come out and remember their loved ones and seeing where they are, being able to find their grave and say their goodbye that some people never got to say.”
Many grave markers were lost over time. Now, descendants can use an online tool on the cemetery’s website to find precise directions to their loved one’s final resting place, even if no gravestone remains.
“They say the dead don’t rest until they have a marker, and so I think a lot of people here finally found some peace
; the families found some peace,” Anderson said.RELATED CONTENT: 215 Bodies Found Behind Mississippi Jail; Families Are Outraged