Community honors historic Black cemetery in Edinburg with annual cleanup

1 day ago 26

EDINBURG — A light drizzle of precipitation and overcast skies did little to dampen the mood Monday morning as dozens of volunteers gathered at the historic Restlawn Cemetery.

Originally scheduled to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the event was postponed for a week due to the cold weather.

Scattered throughout the half-acre plot of land on the northwest corner of Hillcrest Memorial Park, dozens of volunteers took to various tools as they worked enthusiastically raking dead leaves from the gravesites while others added fresh layers of white paint to the small wooden crosses dotting the historic cemetery.

The community service event was part of the city of Edinburg Juneteenth Committee’s annual cemetery cleanup in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and National Day of Service. In partnership with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Center for Student Involvement, volunteers from multiple organizations spent three hours Monday cleaning up what was once a burial site designated for African Americans.

“It’s a national day where communities come together to do a project to serve the community,” Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza said. “Here in Edinburg, for many years, we have the cleanup of Restlawn Cemetery, a very historic cemetery of African Americans — probably one of the only ones that I know of that are dedicated just for African Americans. This goes back many, many, many years ago.”

Restlawn Cemetery, as it is now known, was designated in 1928 as an African American burial site. It is believed to be the only one in Hidalgo County.

“Most of the time it went unnoticed and uncared for,” Bishop Michael Smith of Faith Fellowship Church said. He is also the chairperson for the Juneteenth Committee.

“They called it ‘the cabbage patch’ because everything was growing up at the time,” he said. Once we got wind of that, we’ve been trying to make sure that every year we at least come out and clean it up, paint and try to beautify it for the African American people.”

Restlawn is a non-perpetual care cemetery, as opposed to a perpetual care cemetery. Unlike perpetual care cemeteries, non-perpetual care cemeteries do not have funds set aside for cleaning and maintenance.

For many years, Lewis Callis, a World War Two veteran and retired mail carrier, took it upon himself to cut the grass and clean the plots at the cemetery. He is now buried at the cemetery.

While the staff at Hillcrest Memorial Park has provided maintenance and prevented overgrowth in recent years, the cemetery relies on family members and volunteers to keep the site clean and beautified.

“It feels good that other people are concerned or have care about what’s happening with the Black community, annually,” Smith said. “Just looking at what we see right now, this helps me, or encourages me to keep going on further. I’ll be back in June for Juneteenth as well, because once they beautify it, I don’t mind coming. I think the community lets you know about it, so they can come out and be a part of it.”

Daittra “Dee” Lopez was among the speakers during a brief ceremony prior to Monday’s cleanup. She drew comparisons between Martin Luther King Jr. and Dora Baker, the African American woman who is largely responsible for the creation of Restlawn Cemetery.

It was Baker, who worked as a cook for then Hidalgo County Sheriff Anderson Yancey “A.Y.” Baker, who requested a piece of land to be designated for the growing African American population in Edinburg.

While no legal documentation is believed to have been drawn up, the sheriff — a member of the Hillcrest Cemetery Association, designated a half-acre of land on the Hillcrest property for African American burials.

It is estimated that there have been around 60 burials at Restlawn since its designation in 1928, but roughly half of those buried there have been identified due to a lack of records.

“It’s very hard to determine exactly how many people are buried there,” Lopez said. “There could be many other people where the headstones crumbled, and then dirt was placed over the headstones. We just know that there are people there, at least 60, but I would say there are probably others.”

From 1928 and throughout segregation in the United States, African Americans from the region were buried at the cemetery. After segregation ended in the 1960s burials at the cemetery slowed down, but there are still occasional burials at the cemetery.

In recent years, much has been done to preserve the memory of those who are buried there. Lopez worked closely with Edinburg residents Valerie and Steven Ramirez and the Hidalgo County Historical Commission to research the history of the nearly 100-year-old cemetery.

It was not until June 19, 1993 that the cemetery, which had been known as the “colored” cemetery or “the cabbage patch,” was officially named Restlawn through members of the Rising Star Baptist Church in Edinburg. In 2008, the cemetery was designated as an official Texas Historic Landmark through the Texas Historical Commission. The historical marker has stood just outside of the cemetery gates near Richardson Road since then.

“In the 1990s burials started there again because people wanted to be buried where their family was, so it’s kind of a mix,” Valerie Ramirez said. “I think one of the goals now is to really document and to have a more orderly system so that people that want to be buried there kind of can have a plot assigned to them.”

With much of the information about the individuals who are buried at Restlawn Cemetery lost over time, Lopez and Ramirez, along with multiple organizations, are continuing to honor those who are buried there by maintaining the history and the upkeep of the cemetery for future generations.

“It’s very satisfying, and I’m very proud of Edinburg for their commitment to promoting the cemetery,” Ramirez said. “We’ve been doing this for over 30 years, having things there at the cemetery. It’s a little frustrating when I talk to people and they say, ‘We didn’t know anything about it.’ We try so hard to make the history more available and accessible, because it’s an important part of history.”

The post Community honors historic Black cemetery in Edinburg with annual cleanup appeared first on MyRGV.com.

Read Entire Article