This week, Olivewood Cemetery gained a new status, making the National Trust for Historic...
Charles Cook rests his hands on a headstone in Olivewood Cemetery in Houston. The cemetery is the final resting place for former slaves and dignitaries to Houston's history.When Vickey Shaw puts on old clothes and grabs a can of bug spray and a rake, the hard work she does at Olivewood Cemetery in Houston’s Old Sixth Ward is personal.
“We’re trying to keep Olivewood on the map and on people’s hearts and minds,” said Shaw, 60, who is on the Descendants of Olivewood Cemetery board. “These are our forefathers. They laid the foundation for us so I don’t have to walk in the back door of a restaurant or work as a maid. Both my grandmothers were maids, but I went to college. It wasn’t always like it the way you see it today.”
Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer of the National Trust, said that making the list is incredibly competitive, with less than 9 percent of applicants earning the status. The trust received 122 letters of intent from 38 states and U.S. territories. Those were narrowed to 30 groups, which then were invited to submit full nominations.
“Cemeteries are repositories of community traditions. They reflect spiritual beliefs and burial customs and, in a lot of cases, they’re the only site left associated with prominent individuals,” said Preservation Houston executive director David Bush. “They show how people wanted to be remembered. If you look at it, when communities are established, one of the first institutions created is usually a cemetery.
Olivewood’s earliest burials were often for people who had been enslaved, some who stayed in Houston or came here after Emancipation — people who might have attended the first Juneteenth celebration and would have participated in the formation of early Black communities here.
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